Day Next

Another spectacular day happened. This was the river cruise down the Li Jiang or Li River. This is the area of the karst limestone mountains, the sharply pointed hills famous in Chinese painting. The view sailing down the river was spectacular. The weather was 75F, clear but a little hazy. If you ask Ann it was smoggy and polluted. No matter, the haze gave the mountains the shrouded look that adds mystery to scenes. This is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.

Disembarking in the river town of Yangshuo, we ran the gauntlet through the most insistent “capitalists” I have ever encountered. The tiny street was lined with schlock shops attempting to lure tourists in. In addition in the middle of the street were walking street vendors trying to sell picture books, cheap thingys and postcards. These sellers were like flies. If you stopped for a moment they were all around you. Only by maintaining a pace could you keep from being asked to buy Rolex watches, etc.

We got on jitneys and took a ride into the countryside visiting a 350 year old farmers house, another farm and rice paddies with the requisite water buffalo while driving through these spectacular karst formations. Again we were treated to the gritty underbelly of China. One thing about this tour: We are not seeing only the pretty and fancy. We are also seeing how the majority of citizens live. I am thankful for that and for our guides who want us to see it. Back to Guilin we were to a man (and woman) exhausted from these 14 days on the road. Straight to dinner and back to the room for packing tonight since our wakeup call will be at 4:30 am for our flight to Guangzhou and on to Hong Kong for our last two days.

Having spent the last seven days outside the show cities of Beijing and Shanghai, I have come to the realization that China may be an emerging economic power but the poverty and living conditions of the greater majority of the populace is generally appalling. How about this? When a new apartment is bought and my goodness are there a lot of high rises in this country being built, an additional one third of the price of the apartment is spent furnishing it. Now by furnishing I mean hiring an electrician to put in wiring, a plumber to put in plumbing, a contractor to put in floors, windows, counters and walls. Then all of the actual furniture and appliances must be bought. Workers are usually farmers coming into the cities to make money and have little expertise in construction. These, of course, are only the upwardly mobile. For most Chinese, though, buying a condo is not an issue.

I think I have truly hit the wall. I am now exhausted even though I am getting wonderful sleep. Only two days left but I cannot miss anything so I must go on!

Thought for the day: You can't tell a book by it's cover or a country by its show cities.