Today we arrived in Guilin around noon, dropped off from the bus right across the hostel. It was incredibly convenient. At first we were too tired from the bus to really do anything, but then we decided to head out for food to a restaurant recommended in the Lonely Planet. We also ran into Emo from the United Kingdom (originally Nigeria) who said if it was OK she would tag along. That ended up being the ticket! After a delicious meal of eel with Sichuan spicing, pork with bean curd sauce, green beans with spicy sauce, fried rice noodles. Ahh! Well satiated we continued on our explorations. Emo and Hugh had the same idea-take lots of photos!
Mara & Emo after the meal
From here we decided to walk upriver and found a concrete path right alongside. We were delighted to see what goes on a Monday afternoon on the river.
fisherman on Li River
Just downstream of this fisherman there was a “swim club” we decided as we watched first one lone woman get in and start swimming upstream, then 5 minutes later 3 men ambling down to the water.
woman from the swim club
The woman swam farther and longer than the men. Breaststroke upriver, freestyle downriver. She probably swam over half a kilometer all told. Outside temps have been between 6-13 degrees Celsius, so we figure the water has not been warm.
grandfather swimming
We were impressed with the swimmers. This man was not with the swim club, but was swimming on his own, a little upriver, still very impressive.
We also went to see Solitary Peak Park which is where that opening photo is taken. It was pretty amazing-an old palace with a wall around it plus a temple on top of some karst. It was very interesting. Following are some shots of the stroll around Guilin.
view from the temple
another view from the top
one of the gates to the walled fortress
We had a great afternoon and tomorrow we leave for Shanghai. While we are sad we are also looking forward to going home.