Friday 14th November 2014
Li River Cruise – Yangshuo Mountain Retreat
Liu San Jie Show
Our alarm was set this morning for 6.45am. We are meeting Marco in the lobby at 8.30am. We will have a 40-minute drive to the place where we start the 4 ½ hours Li River Cruise.
There is an excellent variety of foods on offer for breakfast, as one would expect in a hotel of this standard. It is, however, the first time we have seen cucumber juice available.
We all laughed as we were checking out of the hotel when we spotted a notice on the reception. It read ‘spitality desk’, something was hiding the first two letters of the word ‘hospitality’, but it did seem rather appropriate here in China.
The cruise along the Li River from Guilin to Yangshuo was awesome. The four of us spent the majority of the time standing on one of the boat decks marvelling at the spectacular scenery and attempting to capture it with our cameras. There are many karsts. Karsts are rock formations of limestone or other easily eroded stone. The erosion produces ridges and pinnacles, fissures and crevices creating many different shapes. Some of the karsts are partially covered with fluffy looking greenery, others are just bare rock. The many different sizes and shapes of the karsts are sometimes altered by an occasional mist, or by a shadow, which is created by the odd passing cloud.
We saw a couple of locals doing their daily fishing with their cormorants on a narrow wooden raft. This is real life not a show for the tourists.
Marco warned us that the meal served on the boat might not be of very good quality. We all agreed, however, that it was acceptable for a lunch cooked for a large number of people from the back deck of a boat.
We had watched a chef and his team of two or three staff in the kitchen on the back of one of the boats in front of us. Quite a few boats were slowly following the same meandering path along the picturesque Li River.
One of the many beautiful scenes of the Li River is depicted on the 20 Yuan note. Many people where on the boat’s deck and their cameras were clicking constantly when this scene came into view.
The Li River Cruise ended at Yangshuo around 1.30pm. Marco explained that we would walk downtown through the popular tourist area named West Street and meet the driver to take us to our hotel. Apparently the street is so named not on account of its direction but because it is usually full of Westerners. There are many colourful stalls, bars and restaurants. There are carvings, scrolls, t-shirts, silk scarves, tablecloths and runners, many of which appear handmade, for sale. Marco told us that if we wanted to shop we could return tomorrow on our free day. Pete and Anne are planning on doing a bike ride tomorrow from Yangshuo Mountain Retreat where we are staying to Dragon Bridge, a place about 10km away. Dave and I plan to come back here to ‘Downtown’, have a stroll around, maybe buy a little something – maybe a new t-shirt or two and have lunch. We agree to take notice of the way to the hotel so that we know the route back for tomorrow.
We arrive at our hotel, which is situated on the Yulang River, and find that the setting for this mountain retreat is idyllic. Dave and I are now sat in the retreat’s garden, the sun is out and we are enjoying a beer and our lovely view. In front of us lies the river with bamboo rafts slowly carrying tourists along. There is a weir and we are watching the rafts go down it, some of the tourists are wearing plastic bags to prevent their feet from getting wet. Our view is framed by five or six tall karsts clustered together at one side and a smaller one at the other; a tall bamboo is overhanging the river. The sun slowly on its descent is currently between two overhanging branches of bamboo.
The weather is excellent for this part of China in November, particularly as summer was expected to end in September. We are lucky! I was quite warm so I removed the bottom parts of my walking trousers making them into shorts. I ran around to where Pete and Anne were sitting and I did a silly little jig in front of them flashing my very white legs. The member of staff who had served us our beers looked momentarily taken aback but she soon joined in with our friend’s laughter.
Within minutes of us arriving at this wonderful Mountain Retreat with its picturesque setting, Dave and I had changed our minds and decided to stay here tomorrow. We will relax, enjoy the surroundings and maybe have a raft ride along the river.
Young people from the local villages staff the hotel. All the furniture in our river view room is handmade from bamboo, which is grown in a local sustainable forest. Our room has a patio area with views of the Yulong River and the surrounding karsts.
Early evening, Marco and our driver arrived to take us to the show. The Impression Show also known as The Light Show or the Liu San Jie Show is the best show in China according to our guide. It is performed on the worlds ‘largest natural stage’.
This remarkable ‘stage’ location covers an area of 2 square kilometres. Twelve mist-shrouded karsts form the backdrop to this show that takes place on the river. The setting is amazing with the hidden lighting illuminating the karsts. The show is an unusual spectacular as it involves hundreds of people performing on boats, rafts and raised pontoons. A huge crescent moon stage set was taken onto the river in darkness and then illuminated. A dancer who was on the set performed a short dance routine.
We enjoyed the show and would recommend it. The show lasted just over an hour. There are usually two performances each evening with a total of 7000 people in the audiences. Sadly, quite a few people started to leave ten minutes before the end, which obviously disrupted our view. Perhaps they had a bus to catch…
The show’s director who apparently is quite famous also directed the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2008 Beijing Olympic games. He also directed two well-known films, ‘Raise the Red Lantern’ and ‘Hero’. Tickets were available from 198 Yuan to 680 Yuan and ours were purchased for us by China Links (our travel agency) as an apology for the error in booking us into the incorrect hotel in Xi’an. The company also arranged for Marco and a driver to take us to the show and return us to our hotel afterwards.
As the hotel’s restaurant stopped serving food at 9.30pm, the four of us had ordered dinner earlier in the day and the friendly staff said it would be ready on our return. The Chinese tend to eat their lunch around midday and their evening meal at 5pm or 6pm. We had bony flattened duck, beef with oyster sauce, rice, vegetables and mushrooms. We had lots of laughs; we showed one another funny photographs, which we had taken of each other. There was a photo of me puffing my face up when I bought a piece of cake at the airport, Pete quipped that he had taken the photo before I ate the cake! Dave had taken one of Pete and Anne snoring… eh I mean sleeping on the train and we had taken a selfie of us pulling our tongues out so we could send the two shots together to them. Anne had also captured me with my shorts on and my bright white legs.
It has been a really great day, topped off with a fabulous show, a good meal and lots of laughter with our good friends.
There is no need to set the alarm tomorrow as we have decided not to make plans, rafting can be arranged within 20 minutes and if I decide on a massage I need to give just 30 minutes notice. So, let’s just see what we feel like doing when we wake up.
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