Yangshuo and Countryside




Jerri's ready to go fishing, Li River style.

 

When the Li River cruise boat docked we had time to do a little shopping, and souvenir-hawker-dodging in Yangshuo. It’s a very small tourist town of about 30,000 that sees 20 million tourists a year.






Main shopping district in Yangshuo.

 




We're shopping and we're happy.

After shopping for about 45 minutes we took an open taxi out into the adjacent farming country. It’s mostly fruit tree orchards and rice paddies. We stopped and visiting two of the most charming little old ladies we’ve ever met. They live in and maintain a farm house that’s well over 340 years old. Ponder that for just a minute. When this house was built, the capital of Virginia was Jamestown. These two ladies gushed over Amanda and Ally, using the Chinese phrase “piao liang” to describe them, which means “very beautiful” in English. I don’t speak much Chinese, but it sure feels good when I understand something and it’s a phrase like that. They delighted in showing us their bean curd grist mill, hand pump for water, wood burning kitchen range, and main room. It was definitely the highlight of the day for the girls.

Countryside pictures...



Ally and Amanda in front of a rice paddy.




With one of the "grandmas" in the main room.




Pumping water by hand. It was very cold.




Amanda hand cranking the bean curd grist mill.




Ally hand cranking the bean curd grist mill.