One of the things that Richard and Frances insisted upon doing while in China was to visit Yangshuo, near Guilin in Guangxi Province in southern China. It’s the land of the karst mountains that rise up out of the flat floodplains of the Li River. We had been there about a year ago and blogged about it here, here, here, here and here. I have no doubt that mum will blog about it at some stage on her own blog – she’s already started blogging about their China stay here, here and here (and just keep reading her blog to see more). So why am I writing about their trip to Yangshuo when they can write about it themselves? Two reasons. The types of pictures we tend to post on our blogs are very different, so we probably won’t post many of the same pictures, even though I’m taking the liberty of using Mum and Dad’s photos here (hey, I wasn’t there). And I want to take the opportunity to give Gary and Sophia’s business another plug because they treated Mum and Dad so fabulously and they just had the best time ever (if Arlo wasn’t here when they came back I think the rest of their China stay after Yangshuo would have been pretty boring for them). Gary and Sophia operate WinWin Travels and will tailor a trip to your specifications. We thought Mum and Dad would have a relaxing time in the countryside like we did a year ago but they were with Sophia every day, seeing something new and experiencing things they never would have anywhere else.
Perhaps Mum can caption these photos – I’m just posting them because they’re just a selection of the thousands of photos they took that I love!
View of the Yulong River from their hotel room (Yangshuo Mountain Retreat)
Cormorant fishing at night
Buffalo on the banks of the Li River
Buffalo on the banks of the Li River (again)
Yarn in a small market in a village on the Li River
Fresh food in the market.
A new form of cooking. I decided not to post the picture Dad took of the (dead) dog being prepared for butchering – it made even me feel a bit queasy.
Fowl.

The light and water show they run twice each night – it has a cast of thousands (I think) and 10 000 people go to watch each performance.
Cumquat trees
Laughter while picking cumquats
Rice paddies below and cumquats in the hills




In the tea plantation – picking tea leaves
A view of the Li River and the karst mountains.
Making dumplings with Gary and Sophia’s family.
Smiles at Gary and Sophia’s home.
Reading to Gary and Sophia’s girls
The garage/restaurant where Mum and Dad had a memorable meal.
The dish bony chicken (head, feet and all).
Now go over to Mum’s blog to see what she has to say about it all…
And … DAD’S NOW GOT A BLOG AS WELL! Check his thoughts on China here!