We went back to the smaller river outside of Yangshou and took a lovely floating raft trip.  They have hundreds of the rafts parked along the shore. 

You sit on the comfy bamboo chairs under a sun umbrella and float down the river.  There are vendors for drinks and snacks along the way.  We bought our raftsmen a beer and got some peanuts and headed down the river.  It was very calm and lovely and warm.  What a relaxing fun day.

Kelsey was getting in to the relaxing day!

Things get a little more exciting as you go over the small dams.

Kieran and the beautiful limestone mountains.  Our raftsman had a little laminated list of all of the names of the mountains in his pocket and he just pointed to the number to tell us what they were.  There were things like Rabbit, Mother and baby etc.

Our turn for a little more excitement.  Just about lost the drinks on this one.

Ahh, what a lovely day.  Lots more pictures to paint now!

This morning we took the bigger motorized fake bamboo raft down the Li River to the ancient town of Fuli.

Lots of people were out on the river.  Apparently the little village of Yangshou now gets 13 million tourists a year.  It is so crowded compared to when I was here in 2002.  I guess alot of them are coming for the fantastic huge opera on the river.

I have painted this scene in watercolour with a more colourful sky.  Check it out at http://www.worldarttours.net/chinapaintings.html

Our guide was a buffalo boy as he was growing up.

Think we'll take a wide berth as we go around that one. Those horns are big!

Walking up the path to the village of Fuli.  Cute but a fair bit of garbage kicking around.

There are lots of artists in the village.  We had a nice look around this studio and shop and bought a few lovely traditional paintings for a quite a deal.

Angie and the artist.

There are also lots of trinkets for sale--probably some fake antiques.

There was also a factory artshop making different fans and paintings which were being shipped out.

We were actually enjoying the market until we saw that they had two dog carcasses for sale.  They looked smoked but probably had just had the hair burned off.  They were also gutted and lying on their backs with paws in the air and fangs showing.  Being vegetarians I am pretty much having nightmares over this one, although, as a vegan I am equally disturbed at seeing dressed cows and sheep--or should I say "undressed".  Not quit so thrilled about Fuli.

The village of Yangshou is the site of the world's largest outdoor opera, the Impression of Sanjie Liu. It features the landscape of the bay surrounded by the spectacular backdrop of the mist, rain, moon and lit up twelve hills along the river and is filled with the music, costumes and dancing of over 600 Li River people as well as bamboo rafts, boats, barges and even an entourage of animals. It truly is a spectacle designed by the originator of the Beijing Olympics show and features the story of a fairy singer and tells of the legends of the Zhaung ethnic minority. It is an amazing performance, unlike any you will ever see anywhere.

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Why take a bus when you can take a boat cruise through the amazing karst peaks up the Li river to the beautiful village of Yangshou from Guilin.  Now , maybe saying village is an understatement.  While it is a village, they get over 13 million visitors a year to see the amazing landscape, the beautiful caves, and the amazing river opera which is the largest natural outdoor opera in the world.  It is no longer the lovely village that back packers enjoyed when I visited in 2002.  Now people will have to visit smaller more remote villages if you want to escape the crowds.

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We drove for about an hour out of Guilin to the hilltop villages of the Dragons Backbone or the Longji rice terraces.  These were built by people who had to escape the tyranny of an ancient ruler several hundred years ago.  They worked for centuries carving out rice paddies on terraces all of the way up the mountain side.  A testament to these peoples engineering genius  and physical and mental strength.  Impoverished but survivors these people eeked out a subsistance living.  They were very poor but now they seem to be having some measure of success with tourism.  Now there are many inns built up the hillside in the traditional style, originally all of wood with not a single nail. There are definitely signs of prosperity with many inns now dotting the terraced hillsides a stark change from my visit in 2002 when there was no where to stay in this area..

Unlike most other areas of China, hiking up the Dragons Backbone is not yet overcrowded--it is way too much work for most.  We did meet this group of friendly folk on our way up and they wanted their picture with us.  Kieran counted his steps and it was several thousand.  Needless to say my hair was pretty hot and sweaty. Maybe a ride up would be nice.

The people work hard yet are always happy and had a smile for us.  Up and up the mountains we all climbed until we almost neared the top.

If you are old, weak, sick, or just rich yo can get a ride up to the top on a sedan chair.  What a job.  It is amazing to think that everything needs to be carried to the top by people or horses--food, building material, furniture, and crops must be carried down.  This should be a wetter time and saddly the rice fields were showing some signs of drought.  Not a good sign of harvest.

The people and the horses work really hard around here. Here are some of the poor little horses carrying their very heavy loads up the very steep stone stairs.

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