Beautiful li river, guangxi, china

rpcrowerpcrowe Registered Users Posts: 733 Major grins
edited June 2, 2010 in Journeys
The portion of the lovely Li (pronounced as "Lee" not "Lie") River that I visited in April 2010 is located between Guilin and Yangshuo in Guangxi Province of Southwest China. This section of the Li is lush and green with gorgeous karst limestone peaks jutting out of the verdant jungle. It is an area in which the river has not been spoiled by the unrestricted industrial growth and the resultant polution prevalent along many of China's wateways...

The tour was originally scheduled to board the boat near Guilin and sail all the way down to Yangshuo. However, this was not possible because There has been an exceptional drought in the area around the headwaters of the Li causing the level of the river to drop so drastically that only a short section between Guilin and Yangshuo is navigable...

We boarded our cruise boat South of Guilin sailed part of the way down the river towards Yangshuo We then anchored, had lunch and sailed back to our original boarding spot where we disembarked and boarded a bus to continue down to Yangshuo...

Unfortunately, even though there is a drought around the headwaters of the Li River, we hit rain, mist and fog during our river cruise. My imagery suffered due to the weather but, the trip was still interesting and the area beautiful...

You have to run the gamut of "Hello Guys" (vendors) as you are boarding and then again when you are leaving the boat...

865983577_SRMnX-M.jpg

They sell everything from Rolex watch copies to fruit and nuts...

865984513_nL8y3-M.jpg

There are three types of cruise boats shown here: the large multi-deck boats, bamboo rafts with outboards and small boats with covered cabins ...

865984118_Xic5U-M.jpg

Large cruise boat getting underway with mist shrouded karst peaks in background...

865985666_HKepn-M.jpg

Main deck cabin of large cruise boat...

865985144_2nBJW-M.jpg

Large cruise boat with tourists crowding rails...

866422355_MQbho-M.jpg

Smaller cruise boat with covered cabin...

866422579_LbYMo-M.jpg

Bamboo cruise raft...

866423971_5mMCd-M.jpg

Although the weather was not good, the area was still beautiful...

866421909_UNoDQ-M.jpg

The peaks are lovely, even in the mist and clouds...

866424220_vECKh-M.jpg

But on a clear day, they must be spectacular. This is a painting of the Li River on a clear day, for sale at the local university art gallery...

866422124_gJqHa-M.jpg

Two boats rounding bend in river...

866422998_Wz6QD-M.jpg

Cooking lunch on the fantail of a cruise boat...

866423518_QaT9p-M.jpg

While we paused for lunch, vendors polled their bamboo rafts out to our boat despite the rain...

866503673_TNYRL-M.jpg

It is not an easy way to make a living...

866504278_mWQZQ-M.jpg

But, sometimes there can be a sale through the windows of the boat...

866503885_rKcAq-M.jpg

Arriving back where we were to disembark, we faced another line of vendors hawking all sorts of souvenirs and fruits...

866425216_wUCpA-M.jpg

I included this image because of the contrast between the European woman in a dress, heels and a bright raincoat with the gnarled and drab peanut vendor...

866425622_vyrYd-M.jpg

Comments

Sign In or Register to comment.