Yangshuo to Hangzhou (27th October 2015)

Traveling back from Yangshuo to Guilin (for a flight to Hangzhou), we visited the Reed Flute Caves. These are not named, as you would expect, because of shape similarities between stalagmites or stalagtites and a musical instrument, but because of clumps of reeds commonly found near the entrance to the caves.

Do I detect a trend here in Chinese tourist attractions? Some countries take pains to make natural attractions safe and accessible, while minimizing impact on the natural phenomena. Some countries (NZ springs to mind) go an extra step by putting a view-obstructing fence around the outside and charging an entry fee. China seems more likely to take a natural beauty and "enhance" it, e.g. by shining coloured lights on it, or planting bamboo along it.

Yangshuo (26th October 2015)

This morning we walked around past fields a little outside of Yangshuo.

In amongst houses and fields there were burial mounds.

These all looked like greenhouses from a distance. Up close we see they're not fully enclosed.

These are trained fishing cormorants. They rest during the day.

A night, the fishermen use bright lights on their bamboo rafts to draw the fish to the surface, and the cormorants dive to catch the fish, but can't swallow them because of constrictions placed on their necks. When fishing is done, the constrictions are removed to allow the birds to feed.

(I'm not sure how much fishing is still done by this method. Might be just for tourists.)

Li River (25th October 2015)

We cruised the Li River from Guilin to Yanshuo. When tectonic forces squeezed up the ancient sea beds, they made lots of lovely rumply bumps around this area. And since it's mostly limestone, all the water seepage has created thousands of caves underneath the bumps.

Water buffalo get a fairly easy time here, except for a couple of days a year when they help with rice field ploughing.

The river is for transport and fishing, but more importantly, for tourism.

 We didn't go into this cave. The schedule included a later stop at a larger cave.

Phoenix-Tail bamboo is not indigenous to this area. It was introduced to perfect the aesthetics - to introduce a decorative feature between the water below and the limestone lumpy bits above.

One of the highlights of the tour was the Impression Sanjie Liu performance on a part of the river.

My phone camera (and photography skills) don't give a good impression. Best to check out what someone else has captured and put on YouTube.

Dali-Kunming-Guilin (24th October 2015)

A day for traveling. We did the 5+ hour bus trip back to Kunming without traffic jams. The internal flight from Kunming to Guilin went smoothly, except for the check-in staff losing my passport for a while. With two bus-loads of Wendy Wu tourists (29 Aussies+Kiwis, 28 Pommies in a separate bus) all going to the same places at the same time, we were bound to get the occasional confusion.

Guilin is pretty. These are the Sun and Moon Pagodas on Fir Lake.

Dali (23 October 2015)

Past the horse-drawn taxis, through the marketplace filled with people and bikes and scooters, around the hoarded off street reconstruction zone, down a little alley, we reached a silk embroidery school.

In a sheltered area of the courtyard, the students stitched.

Someday they may be masters, and produce works like this.

Back up the alley, around the construction zone, through the market, and back to Xizhou Village -- a touristy place near the taxis, we were entertained by the Bai People who enacted a wedding ceremony and gave us three cups of tea as part of the ceremony.

Maybe we misread their expressions, but these performers looked bored. I wonder how many times a day they do the same dances.

Yen's house, a traditional Bai house had an internal courtyard with a west-facing wall painted white to make the best use of the evening sun.

Then back out of the tourist attraction, past the taxi stand, and off for a cruise.

We cruised to a small fishing village on an island in Erhai Lake.

 

 The village had their own god.

 

And a Buddhist temple too.

Their fishing business seemed to be going okay.

Back on the mainland. I think this is more of a guideline.

And because we were delayed on the road yesterday, we packed a bit more into the late afternoon with the Song Dynasty's Three Pagodas.

This tree has strange flowers.

What a magnificent golden turkey!

Kunming to Dali (22nd October 2015)

Bus trip from Kunming to Dali:

• Predicted 5-8 hours, depending on the traffic. 
• Actual 10+ hours. An accident blocked the main highway. We were diverted onto a provincial road. There were roadworks on the provincial road reducing sections of it to a single lane. 

All Chinese drivers know that the only way to get where you want is to push forward, and if there's nothing coming in the opposite direction, you should overtake (even when the vehicles you're overtaking are all banked back due to a jam ahead).

(Always a geek - I think of this in terms of Bus Contention and a lack of  Bus Arbitration.)

On to lighter things. In the hotel lobby in Kunming:

In the hotel lobby in Dali:

After the long drive, the market in the walled ancient quarter in Dali was delightful.

Kunming (21st October 2015)

Kunming, in the Yunnan Province, has Spring all year round. It was our introduction to higher elevations (1900 m).

First stop: The Stone Forest

There were some Yi people there. They added colour.

No problems getting to the Stone Forest. We did have some problems getting back. There was an 8-car pile-up somewhere up ahead.

 We were stationary for 2 hours.

At least it gave us more of a chance to see the countryside.

BTW. We're easily amused. This is the side of our bus.

In the evening we went on an optional extra trip to see a stage performance by multiple ethnic minority groups. We enjoyed that more than the Sichuan Opera.