This year our school had Thursday and Friday off to
celebrate Thanksgiving. We planned a
trip to Yangshuo, China with our good friends that we knew in Michigan, the
Johnsons. It was so much fun to vacation
with them!
We left Wednesday night and flew to Guilin (which translates
as a laurel flower). Our fun tour guide,
a lady named Danny, greeted us at the airport.
In the morning we took a cruise on the Li River to Yangshuo for about 4.5
hours. The mountains were amazing. At one point the guide showed us that we were
passing the location of the scenery on the Chinese dollar. The time went by quickly talking and playing
games with the Johnsons.
In Yangshuo we stayed at the Mountain Retreat. The rooms felt like cozy cabins. The food was great. We liked the options for breakfast--especially
the banana pancakes and hot chocolate.
That night the Newmans (who were also visiting Yangshuo) joined us for
Thanksgiving dinner at the hotel. We
went around the table saying what we were all thankful for. How fun for us to be able to be in China,
celebrating Thanksgiving, with our good friends from Michigan!!
Friday morning a few of us went on a bike ride. We saw the ancient Banyan tree – walking
around it with the one you love is good luck.
The kids loved going through the water cave and playing in the mud. A highlight for me was going on a bamboo
raft. That night we watched a Light Show
called Liusanjie, produced by the same man who created the opening ceremonies
for the Beijing Olympics. It was
dramatic and parts were very spectacular.
But the music was odd traditional Chinese. We were all laughing when we saw John buying
the DVD/CD after the show, because we couldn’t imagine listening to that music
for fun. I tried giving it away as a
white elephant gift in December but he wouldn’t let me.
Saturday we spent most of the time in the van
going up a mountain to see the “Dragon Backbone Rice Terraces.” Not only was it a long ride in the van it was
also a long hike up. The view was
amazing. We were glad we took the day to
see it. On our way to the airport we
were stuck in standstill traffic for about two hours because of a car accident. We thought for sure we would miss our
flight. Again the time went quickly
visiting with the Johnsons. When we got closer
to the airport Danny called our airline saying we were on our way. They were waiting for us when we arrived just
ten minutes before take off, having prepared our tickets, bag-tags and they
rushed us through security. We were a
funny site running through the airport, boarding the plane about 7 minutes
after entering the airport. We were so
grateful that we made the flight!
Scenery on the Chinese dollar
Thanksgiving dinner
Entering the mud caves
View from the Mountain Retreat
