Guilin & Yangshou

I really wish I would have finished blogging about our China trip last year, but life got busy. 

We spent the last part of our trip in Guilin and Yangshou. We had the best time in these cities, they were much smaller and more rural than the other places we had visited so far. I believe in China they are considered tourists destinations. The first evening we spent in Guilin we walked around the park outside our hotel 

 

The next morning we packed an overnight bag and we took a river cruise on the Li River to Yangshou. 

The scenery and life on the river was so amazing. For many people this river is their life. It is how they travel, how they make a living, how they survive. 

This guy came right up next to our cruise ship trying to sell fruit to people.

Big rock formation bordered the river throughout the whole cruise. Many of the mountains had special names because they looked like a horse or meant something, I can't recall any of that. I spent most of the whole trip on the top deck taking pictures. 

Once we got to Yangshou we were pretty much on our own. We grabbed a map at the hotel and started to explore. The majority of the town that we saw was just full of markets. You could buy anything and everything. We did a lot of shopping! We had a fun time bartering with the locals. Many of them barely understood us so we would pass paper and calculators back and forth trying to come up with a good deal. 

A night time the whole town came alive with night clubs. It was a little strange. We ate dinner at a cute little italian place where we ordered pizza and chinese food. Later that night we walked by and it had turned into a dance club. 

Very strange packaged meats.... 

On our way back to the hotel that night the streets were very crowded. I saw this very small old lady sitting on a stool selling bracelets. I stopped and bought a few bracelets from her.

The streets were so crowded we could barely make our way through. We held onto each other tight and pushed our way through. 

Our last morning in Yangshou we had to make a quick trip into the market place to buy a small rolling suit case to bring all of our souvenirs back in. 

I hope I can visit this beautiful place again. I loved watching the people and exploring this small town. I never felt unsafe and everyone was very friendly. Looking back through all these pictures and thinking about the memories made makes me want to travel again.