0410--0413 Gui Lin and Yang Shuo trip

There is a Chinese poet literally translated, "Gui Lin’s scenery is best among all under heaven". Certainly it is not exaggerating. From April 10 (night) till 13 (night) we have been to Gui Lin and Yang Shuo. The first night we stayed in Gui Lin. Second day early morning, we took a boat along Lijiang River up to Yang Shuo. Both sides of the Lijiang River is magnificent, breath-taking, and certainly remind me of how powerful is our Mother Nature. There are different names for the different mountains based on how they look. In other words, it really relies on your imagination. For instance, there is a mountain called "Nine Horses Drawn Mountain". As the name implies, on the wall of the mountain (from a far distance), if your eye sight is excellent, and with a great imagination, you could spot nine horses with different poses. After 4 hours on the boat, we arrived at Yang Shuo. Unfortunately due to the rain, we could not do the biking sightseeing thing, or taking bamboo raft. So, all we could do was walking around the West Street. The good thing was we could get a good night sleep. The next day, it was still raining. So, we have decided to take a bus to go back to Gui Lin. On the way, we stopped by Shangri-La. It certainly is a very beautiful place. The water is surrounded by chain of mountains. Frankly, the view was like it came out from the traditional Chinese brush drawing. After about 1 hour of car trip, we arrived at Gui Lin. After we checked in the hotel, we have decided to walk in to town, around Zheng Yang Bu Xing Street, and some other area. Basically to take it slow. After taking a good night sleep, we have rented a car and basically tour around Gui Lin.

We visited several tourist spots. Firstly we rented a bamboo raft to ride along the Lijiang River to get a good view of the Elephunt Trunk Hill and to have a good view on some other far-away mountains without being blocked by roads, buildings or vehicles. After that we visited Reed Flute Cave to see some enchanting stalagmites, stone pillars, stele, stone curtains and stone flowers. Then, we went to Du Xiu Hill, which is actually located behind a used-to-be home of an ancient upper level people. we climbed up the hill to have a bird-view on the Gui Lin city. Then, we went to Yao Mountain. This was definitely a very "impressive ride". We have to take a "cable car" to climb up the hill. But, the point is, the cable car is "exposed". In other words, you are actually riding a swing without any cover to protect you, except a so-called guardrail (which you could lift it up very easily, i.e., not locked). Along the ride, we were really close the nature, close the sky so to speak. I mean, you could really fall and die fairly easy with that ride. Worse, the ride took about 30 minutes! Well, certainly a very unforgettable experience. Last but not least, we went to Yu Mountain Garden. Nothing special about that spot, just a garden and temple built surrounding the Yu Mountain. And a lot of famous people came here because of the so-called "spiritual richness" of this place. Myth has it you could be spiritual charged to bring you some fortune here. Then, after the all-day trip, we went to the airport and flew home!