A Great Wall and Guilin Christmas

One of the few man-made structures that can be seen from space is the Great Wall of China and I have now been to it. We went to a portion of the wall that was not as crowded on a day that was supposed to be very cold and windy. It snowed the night before and there were very few people on the wall that morning and it was not very cold in the sun since the unexpected wind did not arrive until later. So we all wandered and climbed, joined by an Aussie family with four little girls. There was a chute to slide down from the wall on our section and we took advantage of it. Sliding down a concrete chute on a metal platform with wheels and few if any safety constraints just makes the sliding more fun. Just like rocking the unsafe ski lift car which only has a bar holding you in over a long drop is fun. I did that on the way up to the wall. But the wall was beautiful even absent the Mongol hoards. We climbed past a sign telling us not to walk further (or a Chinglish version of that) since it was unsafe. Trees and shrubs were growing and had helped the slow process of time erode the wall-top. We walked along that section until it really looked dangerous to go further. Then we went back to the chute. Samily and her cousin we left very far back waiting for us sitting on the cold stairs by the snack stand. After that we got some lunch at a really nice place nearby and began the long drive back to the city and the traffic. Lots of insane traffic. We went to begin the food shopping for the Christmas party at one of the foreign food shops and then went home to watch the television.

Sunday happened with not much going on then Monday Dad and I were left on our own to get a few more things for the party and presents for people. Christmas was Christmas and we had the party and watched movies all day long. Frankly, Dad and I stayed up way too late for our early flight the next day. I've been having problems sleeping anyway, so I got up early (4 am) like I had been the last couple of days I'd been in China. Then packed and showered we found a taxi to the airport and flew off to Guilin.

While some people were still celebrating Christmas, Dad and I climbed to the top of a karst where there was a Buddhist shrine. Guilin is in the middle of a range of karsts, a geological formation of mountains from an ancient mountains on the sea floor. Over thousands of years in the air they have eroded and now sharply stick up into the sky high above the plain. They are also covered in ferns an foliage appropriate to a semi-tropical climate. Dad and I got a cab to the hotel and walked around. Just around the corner we found one of the places I wanted to visit - Jingjiang Prince's Palace. It used to be a palace but is now Guilin Normal University. Inside the compound there is a karst with a shrine on top and carved around the karst are many many engravings, some hundreds of years old. There is also a cave where an ancient Bhuddist retreated from the world and a reading cave. Yeah, a Reading Cave. A cave dedicated to reading. My dream come true. Unfortunately it

wasn't so great to look at, but the fact that other people want caves for reading gives me hope. But the peace cave was nice and the karst was amazing to climb and see the city and mountains surrounding it. Frankly though it was fun to just wander around in the cool wet air (non-polluted). Dad and I got warmer clothes before we did the serious wandering (after pizza of course). While we were in the University compound, we saw a barber pole and Dad stopped to get a much-needed haircut. Luckily, my limited Chinese was enough to negotiate this. I can also handle orders at a restaurant and cab instructions if I know the Chinese name of where we are going. One phrase I use quite a bit is "too expensive" but then they assume I can understand anything they say when I really don't know much. But I have also been using the phrase "Don't want" excessively as well whether the person who wants to sell me something speaks English or Chinese. I really hardly buy much for myself. It feels wasteful.

Anyway, Dad got his hair cut by the barber on campus then we wandered and found a Spanish restaurant. It was run by a northern Chinese man who studied in Spain for a number of years. My dad loved it. The food was Spanish and good and he could speak to someone in Spanish. Considering Dad leaves me to do most of the speaking in Chinese, he misses communicating with people. The next day on a river cruise on the Li River he got to speak with many of the foreigners on the boat. Of course he talks mostly about business but it is quite interesting. But enough about my very interesting an communicative father since he reads this blog upon occasion. I can only hope he learns tonal languages in the next life.

But back to the river cruise. We had to get up early to get picked up by our guide and wandered over to the Sheraton to get a breakfast, but it was mostly Chinese and not very good. But at seven am in the morning in Guilin, beggars can't be choosers. Since it was pouring, we both dressed warmly and brought umbrellas. Martin, the English-speaking guide who had called the night before arrived and on the drive to the wharf, the rain let up. It still sprinkled on and off all day with a few downpours, but not too bad. We were seated with a newly-wed Swiss couple who were very nice. But for the first few hours we were out taking pictures with breaks to go inside and warm up. The Li River winds through a range of karsts and the scenery is breathtaking. It had me replaying the Jurassic Park theme in my head and imagining we might be about to meet King Kong (scenery

from Peter Jackson's version). We had some atrocious lunch and saw the landscape from the back of the 20 yuan note. After a four hour boat ride, we ended in Yangshuo and took a car out to some village and farm area. We were supposed to bike but with the occasional downpour still threatening, Martin decided driving was better. Then we drove back to Guilin and saw some pagodas on the way.

We walked over to the pagodas after we got back to take pictures since there weren't many left after the Cultural Revolution. While we were doing that a Chinese English teacher began to talk to us. He was from Yangshuo where we visited earlier in the day and talked with us (mostly my Dad) for about half an hour as he walked us over to his favorite restaurant. This was not nearly as good as the Spanish Restaurant we ate at the night before but we had been wandering around in the cold and my medicine had run out so I stopped feeling good and wanted to be in the warmth and then get to bed. So I ordered for us both and we ate and then went back to the hotel. We have been watching this series from the BBC called Parade's End. My dad started to watch it because it was based on the books by Ford Maddox Ford, written by Tom Stoppard, and had Benedict Cumberbatch starring. But the pirated DVD  he had stopped working after only two episodes. So I found it for him and we have been watching it. It is quite good. The night before we watched the fourth episode and The Dark Knight Rises (I gave it to him for Christmas since he hadn't seen it yet.). That night we watched the fifth and final episode of Parade's End and a little of a movie of the play of Much Ado About Nothing with David Tennant and Catherine Tate. Unfortunately, a miracle happened and I figured out how to turn the heat on in the hotel room. The previous night, as many

buttons as I pushed, I could only get it a barely-tolerable 15 degrees Celsius. But I pushed enough buttons and it got up to a toasty 20 degrees, which was warm enough to send Dad right to sleep only about 20 minutes after Much Ado About Nothing started. We went to bed but I actually woke up at around midnight because it was too hot and I had to turn the temperature down. I stayed up to download all the Lijiang and Yangshuo photos so I could clean off my SD card then slept again when it got cool enough.

We had to get up early for an early flight to Beijing and then on to Seoul. I had requested a taxi the night before since we didn't see any when we got up early the previous morning to find breakfast, but the taxi was fifty percent more expensive than the taxi ride from the airport to the hotel because early morning rides are more expensive and we had to pay in advance to assure him we would be there and assure us he would be there. So we rode off through the dark mist and the mountains back to the airport (which was mostly closed that early except one desk to check in the two early flights).