Much of the artwork depicting China shows beautiful landscapes: tall, steep, rocky mountainous areas with clear, still rivers below. Thick mist hovers around the peaks, 
giving it a serene but very mysterious quality. A small fishing boat in the foreground portrays a rustic rural lifestyle that many of us think is a thing of the past.
We ventured into the mainland of China (Jung Gwok Daaih Luhk, in Cantonese) this past weekend. In the evening, we flew out of Hong Kong to the small city of Guilin. Only a 1½ flight to one of the south-central provinces. We stayed overnight in Guilin, then in the morning, took a 4-hour cruise on the Li River to Yangzhou. It was from the riverboat that we saw the actual scene that I just described to you. It is beautiful.
The Chinese have creatively named the individual mountains according to what they have imagined the shape of the mountain to
resemble. There is Bat Mountain, Nine Horse Mountain, “Waiting for Husband” Mountain, and many, many more. Although we have been studying Cantonese here in Hong Kong, most of Mainland China speaks Mandarin, a different dialect. We thought it best to hire an English-speaking guide (not expensive!) to show us around. We were so glad we did. Having her there was essential to being able to relax and enjoy it, and also to know what we were looking at.
In addition to the boat cruise, we spent time exploring the cities. Entering one of Guilin’s many enormous caves, the Reed Flute Cave, felt like walking into another world. The cavern, with its odd-shaped stalagmites and stalactites looks like something from a sci-fi movie. Yangzhou has a large street market. When the vendors see a non-Asian-looking face, we found that they raise prices eight or more times higher than we know the price of the items to be in Hong Kong. Learning to bargain prices in Hong Kong was useful when we were in Yangzhou, even with the language barrier.
We stayed in Guilin one night, in Yangzhou one night, and then took the overnight sleeper train to Shenzhen. The sleeper on the train, with its 4 inch foam pad, was actually softer than either of the hotel beds we slept in. It was puzzled us that both hotel beds had box springs, but no mattresses. And no padding on the box springs under the sheets.
We spent a great day in Shenzhen, a large, thriving Chinese city right over the northern-most border of the New Territories of Hong Kong. In Shenzhen there is a huge, beautifully landscaped park with smaller (but not at all small) versions of so many natural and man-made sites in China. It had all the famous ones, like the Great Wall and the Imperial Palace, but it also had obscure ones we had never heard about. It gave us more ideas about where else in China we would like to go.
giving it a serene but very mysterious quality. A small fishing boat in the foreground portrays a rustic rural lifestyle that many of us think is a thing of the past.We ventured into the mainland of China (Jung Gwok Daaih Luhk, in Cantonese) this past weekend. In the evening, we flew out of Hong Kong to the small city of Guilin. Only a 1½ flight to one of the south-central provinces. We stayed overnight in Guilin, then in the morning, took a 4-hour cruise on the Li River to Yangzhou. It was from the riverboat that we saw the actual scene that I just described to you. It is beautiful.
The Chinese have creatively named the individual mountains according to what they have imagined the shape of the mountain to
resemble. There is Bat Mountain, Nine Horse Mountain, “Waiting for Husband” Mountain, and many, many more. Although we have been studying Cantonese here in Hong Kong, most of Mainland China speaks Mandarin, a different dialect. We thought it best to hire an English-speaking guide (not expensive!) to show us around. We were so glad we did. Having her there was essential to being able to relax and enjoy it, and also to know what we were looking at.
In addition to the boat cruise, we spent time exploring the cities. Entering one of Guilin’s many enormous caves, the Reed Flute Cave, felt like walking into another world. The cavern, with its odd-shaped stalagmites and stalactites looks like something from a sci-fi movie. Yangzhou has a large street market. When the vendors see a non-Asian-looking face, we found that they raise prices eight or more times higher than we know the price of the items to be in Hong Kong. Learning to bargain prices in Hong Kong was useful when we were in Yangzhou, even with the language barrier.
We stayed in Guilin one night, in Yangzhou one night, and then took the overnight sleeper train to Shenzhen. The sleeper on the train, with its 4 inch foam pad, was actually softer than either of the hotel beds we slept in. It was puzzled us that both hotel beds had box springs, but no mattresses. And no padding on the box springs under the sheets.
We spent a great day in Shenzhen, a large, thriving Chinese city right over the northern-most border of the New Territories of Hong Kong. In Shenzhen there is a huge, beautifully landscaped park with smaller (but not at all small) versions of so many natural and man-made sites in China. It had all the famous ones, like the Great Wall and the Imperial Palace, but it also had obscure ones we had never heard about. It gave us more ideas about where else in China we would like to go. 
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