China: Day 28: August 1, 2010 Sunday

We slept in late and then had an American style breakfast with eggs and toast.

With REAL brewed coffee, not instant!!!!

First one since we left California. It was a little bit strange.

Then we got somewhat oriented to our new city. Trying to get a group of 25 who does or doesn’t want to still hang together to figure out who does or doesn’t want to do anything is quiet a challenge.

We finally got sorted out that most of us would go to a big show on the water in the evening.

Jenny and I then headed off to find an ATM and scout out our options. We walked and walked until we ran into one end of the city and then turned around the other way.

Jenny suggested that we rent a tandem bike, we that did for $1.50 for the whole day. This was a great choice. We had a blast on our bike. We got set at the hotel and then were off on adventures.

The area that we are in, Yanghshou, is on the Li River, one of the most beautiful rivers in all of China. We are surrounded on all sides by these karst mountains: large rocks and hills like you have never seen before. They are fantastic and so beautiful.

In many places throughout China we went, people would stop and ask to have their photos taken with us.

We rode out of town and by rice paddies, water buffalo, and really lovely views. At every turn.

We stopped at The Big Banyan Tree National Park. Wow! A huge ancient tree, river all around, beautiful views and a chance to Jenny and I to get our photos taken in traditional costumes. These were hot, but it looked so good. ?

Our Chinese friends say they think these costumes are those of the Miao people who were some of the local ethnic groups in the area.

Getting to wear these clthes in such a beautiful area was a great treat!

Then we rented, again for $1.50 a piece, a little bamboo boat that that we could pole around a protected part of the river, very safe, but VERY cool!

We loved it, because we weren’t with the rest of the group, it was easy to get into conversations with others and we got our photos taken often.

Then we also had the chance to have our pictures taken with three smartly dressed monkeys. They were cute, but it was a bit creepy!

Then on to a lovely farmer’s lunch and a hike up to Moon Hill.

It was about an hours round trip climb, mostly up steps on a nice path. The view was spectacular! And we talked to nice tourists from Denmark. How fun is that. The whole way we were surrounded by bamboo. Beautiful!

Down and back to our hotel. Jenny has a lot of tandem experience, so she steered, through some crazy traffic at various times, but we made it. A quick super, some more shopping and on to the show.

This was a show that featured 600 actors in costumes, some on boats, with lights, lasers, music, torches…like nothing you have seen before. We couldn’t, of course, understand the language of the singing, but it was quite a spectacle.

Having just created shows with 400 students, never all at the same time, this gave us a new appreciation for how much work it was to put this one.

Quite a great thing. The audience as maybe 7-8,000 people!

Crowds swarming together. This is China! Tomorrow another day in the sun (although most of us got sunburned, so more sunscreen seems to be in order!

Here is a sign that show the power of literacy and being able to read. This one means "exit" (okay, it also says it in English, but we can read it!) Very cool!