After a few day stint in Yangshuo, we traveled to Guilin in order to be closer to the airport for our 8:00 am plane ride back to Shanghai.  From Guilin, we took a day trip into Ping'an, where they grow rice on terraces cut into the mountains.  My favorite part about this vacation (besides everything about it) was the number of  people who said "Hello" to us.  It's funny because Chinese people in cities where little English is spoken seem to want to speak English to you way more than they do in international cities like Shanghai.  All that most of them know how to say is "Hello" and "How are you?" but they use it as often as they can.  Also, many of them say "hello" with the exact same accent and intonation as the shopkeepers who use English to try to get your attention as a foreigner.  "Hello.  Scarf?"  "Hello.  Bamboo?" "Hello. WatchBagDVD?"

Alright, pictures - commence.

This was in the bridge we walked under to get from our hostel to the main part of Guilin.  There were several hand-carved stone pictures of Chinese villages.  So beautiful.

These are the sun and moon towers on the river.  The sun tower is on the left, moon on the right.

The sun and moon towers by night.

And here is a picture of some random people who asked us to take a picture with them in front of the sun and moon towers.  We asked them to take a picture of us first.  One guy volunteered to do it, and all of his friends whipped out their cell phones to take photos of us as well.  Then they asked if we would pose with them so their friend could take a photo with each of their cameras.

Here's Adam just outside one of the towers.  We took an unguided tour.  We think that rolling this wheel is good luck, but we're not sure because it was all in Chinese and it was an unguided tour.

Buddha statue inside the moon tower

A photo of the sun tower from the top of the moon tower

blurry photo of the ceiling of the moon tower.  My crappy camera would not focus with all of those lights!

A very jovial Buddha inside of the sun tower

A much more somber Buddha inside the sun tower with lots of qian (money)

Hand shrine to Buddha

Another shrine to Buddha filled with qian

This lady sat inside of the sun tower playing beautiful music on this harp-like instrument.

My favorite story to this day.

 As Adam and I strolled through the market streets of Guilin, three of these girls walked up to us and asked if we spoke English.  We said yes and they asked if they could speak to us for a while to practice.  As I spoke to them, I looked back and forth to make eye contact with each of them.  Every time I looked left, another kid was added.  When I looked right, another was added.  Eventually, I was encircled with 11-year-olds asking me what my favorite everything was. "What's your favorite vegetable?" (cucumbers) "What's your favorite animal?" (cats and cows) "What's your favorite music?" (Lady Gaga - they were very dejected when I told them that I don't like Justin Beiber) "What's your favorite country?" (China).  Then, I looked at Adam and he was surrounded in his own circle of 11-year-olds wanting to know his favorite everything.

We talked with these children for a while when their English teacher came up to take a photo of all of us.  The second the flash of the camera went off, each child jumped out of line to shout at us "Can I have a picture, just you and me?!"  So we spent the next 10 minutes taking pictures with each child individually.  It really was the sweetest thing that's ever happened to me.

MUCH smaller, less developed town than anything we've seen in China so far...

with horses that trot through the streets

and cows living in small barns between houses.

Unfortunately, it was a very foggy day so we couldn't see very far, but you can sort of make out the rice terraces in the background.

Many bananas

Look at that!  This was taken on Adam's and my walk through the mountains.  So incredible.

rice terraces

We came across this funny sign.  I love the English translations around here.

You can see the water that gathered on each ledge.  In the Spring, these mountains look like stained glass from above.

We stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains.

Annnddd you can pay these nice gentleman about $3 and they will carry you our your children all around the mountains on a covered bamboo carriage.

When we came down from the mountains, we meandered along some paths in the village.

Adam walking up the stairway to Heaven.

 All in all, an epic journey.  Our next vacation is in the works for next weekend.  We're going to Suzhou for two nights.  Then, Christmas in Hong Kong and Chinese New Year in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.  I can't believe this is my life right now! :)

Happy travels!

Love,