Li River Cruise and Yangshou

I'm tired, the computer is slow and the interface is in Chinese so hopefully this post will make sense tonight. We are now in Yangshou, having arrived this afternoon around 1:30. We had an uneventful flight to Guilin last night and arrived at our hotel around 9 pm. Breakfast was around 7 this morning and then we took a 30 minute bus ride to the Li River where we spent the day cruising down the river and enjoying the scenery. The weather was quite muggy and hazy today so the limestone peaks weren't that clear but it was still a nice ride. There were probably over 30 boats on the river today, all following one after another. Every once in a while one of the little local boats would come up behind a bigger boat and give it some local goods. I'm guessing that's where our fish at lunch came from! Along the river there are lots of farmers and people washing clothes or even making bricks. Lots of water buffalo and ducks and even some cormorants too. (The fishermen usually fish with them in the evening as apparently their vision is better at night.) Besides our group of 15 there was a Japanese tour group, a European tour group and also some random Chinese tourists. While I was up on deck taking some pictures, one of the Chinese tourists started talking to me. She thought I looked quite young and wanted to know how old I was. When she found out that I was 27 she was quite surprised and told me that I looked 17. Then she got her boyfriend to take our picture together! (She was 31.) Lunch on the boat was a variety of things - rice, soup, different meats with veggies, eggplant, fish, fried dumplings and peanuts. After we arrived in Yangshou we had about an hour to freshen up before we had a 1 hour lesson in Chinese. (Our hotel here is quite nice and quaint and close to many little shops and eating places. ) The Chinese lesson was quite basic - we learned how to count in Chinese and some simple phrases as well. The school that we went to also does other lessons - feng shui, kung fu, cooking, calligraphy etc. The owner said that he could even teach people how to use chopsticks, as he is the national chopstick champion. He can pick up 102 peanuts in a minute with his chopsticks. My chopstick skills are getting better but they are definitely not that good.
After our lesson we wandered around for a bit and looked at the markets and shops. There wasn't an arranged dinner tonight so Jonathan and I ate by ourselves. Nothing too adventurous - spring rolls, stir fry and rice.
Tomorrow will be a busy day so I might not have time to post. We have a bike ride to the country side planned for tomorrow morning, an afternoon massage and 3 hour cooking classes and then a sound and light show in the evening. We stay in Yangshou until Friday morning so I'm sure I will post before then as the Internet at this hotel is free.
(posted at 8 pm local time)