Eastern Thrills: Guilin and Yangshuo

We left Shanghai for Guilin. Guilin is a Southern "small" city of 5 million people. The city itself was not that interesting, but the surrounding areas were amazing. 

Yangshuo Village.

It was soooooo green.

These are multi-family houses for villagers.

Yangshuo Craft Market. Beware if you don't buy anything.

Yangshuo lady fiends I met. 

Matriarch.

They did a performance for us. Okay, I know what you're thinking, "Erin, are you exploiting rural villagers for touristic entertainment? " Well, yes, I guess I was.  It was really interesting though. These females have VERY long hair (yes they are extensions). They wrap it around their head dependent on their marriage status and the number of kids they have.

I think these were the un-maried girls.

This was some seriously primitive sh#*t.  

We then went to the village center and had lunch. 

We then traveled to the Dragon's Backbone Rice paddy terraces.

We had to climb up a mountain (via pathway).

Along the path were markets and restaurants. 

Mid-day snack.

Charred bats and rats, hmmmm...

The mountains surrounding the Dragon's Backbone were glorious.

I was tempted.

Terraces.

This landscape reminded me of the Sri Lankan tea fields. This was way more breathtaking though. Similar feel also to vineyards in Italy and CA.

Old lady sitting in front of a grave.

Lo ciento perrito.

Stunning landscape.

The three of us on top of the mountain. What do you think the sign says? 

They don't recycle in the cities but they sure did here!!

Harvesting.

Longhorn Sheep?

The long way back down.

Our next day's adventure outside the city was to a small town about two hours west of Guilin. 

Elephant Trunk Hill and Karst.

Market with Karst in background.

Li River.

Confucius Temple.

Next to come, our final destination: Hong Kong. 

Eastern Thrills: Shanghai

We arrived in Shanghai in the pouring rain. Come to find out, there was a typhoon warning.  This actually was a bit of relief from the dry heat in the North. We were officially in Central Eastern China.

This was a bewildering city, fused of the West. China's highest population density of 23 million spread over an area 2500 square miles (about 9500 people per square mile). Honestly though, it didn't feel that dense. Home to the world's designer shopping and luxury living, this place was not the China we had been experiencing. We instantly hated it. Of course, by now we thought we were of Chinese nationality so a little defensive feeling the Western influences. Don't worry though, that fizzled quickly as we came to find the ubiquitousness of chinese massage parlors. Every day we paid a visit to a new parlor, with my favorite being a milk foot bath. 

The pictures below will take you on our journey. 

Finally the English alphabet.

Remember the typhoon warning, well it hit ground shortly after the warning. This was minutes before this umbrella was ripped to shreds by the wind and rain. 

Old town.

Mao.

Samara flew in from Katmandu and met up with us at our hotel.

Daily grind.

These balconies just get going up, this modest residential and commercial building was probably 24 stories high.

View of the Pudong District. This is the "new Shanghai." It was built in ten years and is as big as Manhattan. The tall building is the Oriental Pearl Tower. I was standing on "the Bund," which is the historic city center. The Shanghai Stock Exchange and World Financial Center is over there. 

Puxi Historic District.

Old Town. Reminded me of San Francisco's China Town. 

Protector's of the gate.

This folk art was everywhere in old town. 

Our hotel; it was so lovely.

My drugs. I came down with a bad head cold. These lil' babies were the only thing keeping me going. Still not sure what they really were.

Shanghai Art Museum.

Shanghai Art Museum.

Skyline at night; yes, they shoot off fireworks EVERY night as the sun goes down.

Stay tuned for the next stop, Guilin, China.