(Note: sorry for the extremely late posts. Really haven’t had any time to write these up with all the work recently)

Another looong day in Guilin. NYU had plenty planned for us and it was possibly the most fun of all the days in Guilin. After eating breakfast at Cafe China, it was time to grab some bikes and… wait, I mean, get in a car and drive to the Lijiang River. Since I don’t know how to ride a bike, I got to ride in a car along with other people who don’t know or don’t care to ride a bike. We kept stopping to wait for the bikers, which allowed me to take pictures of them riding. When we got to the river, we boarded bamboo rafts in pairs and went on a long and relaxing ride down the river.

Rafting on the Li River

Before we boarded, everyone was given a water gun to assault each other with for the next two hours. I didn’t take part, mostly because I had my camera on me and didn’t want to risk damaging it (I’ve already repaired it once in China…). It was fun watching everyone drench each other.

After rafting, we ate at a restaurant called Moon Hill Cafe before we climbed the Moon Hill. The heat made it very tiring to climb and almost felt as tiring as climbing the Great Wall. When we got to the “moon” portion of the hill, we continued to climb… up the wrong path. Instead of going up the designated path, we went up this rocky path that took us to the hill’s summit. Although it was a mistake, it gave us an incredible view. Climbing down, it turned out, was more difficult, but we all survived!

Stunning view from the summit

Exhausted and sweaty, I had the pleasure of sitting in a car on the way back to the hotel. I guess not knowing how to ride a bike has its perks. It also allowed me to take my time showering and I even had time to pick up some of these from a local corn juice store:

Hot cakes, eggettes, whatever you call them, yum!

I was wondering why it took so long (10 minutes) to make, but I was given my answer when I received them. A bit too crunchy, but it was still tasty. Funny note, I saw the bikers coming back as I was standing there waiting for my food =P

That night, we went to see Zhang Yimou’s Impressions Liu Sanjie. Without going into too much detail (I’ll do that in a separate post), the show was stunning. It was very Zhang Yimou-esque and I could see the similarities between it and the 2008 Beijing Olympics opening show. The sheer number of people, the extraordinary use of lights, and in this case, the natural beauty of the Yangshuo mountains.

Impressive, no?

After the show, we ate at this pizza shop near our hotel. The pizza was OK and everything was good until it took them forever to give us our last two pizzas. Why it took them so long, we have no clue. Other than the slightly disappointing dinner, everything else about the day was incredible. This will probably end up as one of the best days I’ve had in China when all is said and done.

Some random photos from the day:

Statue in the pizza place

A peek-a-pom! Reminded me of Peanut!

Random camel. I didn't know we were in Gansu...