The adventure (4): The Karst landscape – Guilin to Yangshou

Chinese tourism – a small armada of boats 

sets off down the River Li (Guilin to Yangshuo)

After a night in Guilin we had a boat trip down the River Li to Yangshuo with the famous limestone Karst hills as the main feature. These steep hills are a recurring theme in Chinese landscape paintings. 

The cold, damp day with its swirling mists was a classic, although we would have preferred a rather warmer day...

 The limestone Karst hills shrouded with the obligatory mist

 Fellow boat passengers

(above and below)

 

 The national passion – taking photos of each other

Modern pedal power 

The adventure (2) – a few photos from Guilin

 Guilin's lake

After three nights in Hong Kong – one big international shopping opportunity – we flew to Guilin, our first stop in mainland China. Unlike the very impressive cities – Shanghai, Beijing etc. that we would see later in our trip, Guilin felt to be still part of the developing world. It was the first time that we came across electric scooters that can be a threat to pedestrians because they are so quiet. 

In contrast to Hong Kong which had been pleasantly warm, Guilin was decidedly cold.   

 In the distance the limestone Karst hills 

that are such a feature of this area 

(above and below)

 The Karst hills shrouded in mist are great 

favourite for Chinese landscape artists