xi: ’tis a forest of sweet osmanthus!
Fri 25 Jul 2008 at 1:14 am ♥ Filed under Guilin 2008
… and after Moon Hill, we had dinner of Guilin cuisine and a nighttime boat tour across the Lijiang and Peach Blossom River.1
(click for larger view)
It’s so refreshing to have clean air, panoramic mountain views, and river water that isn’t brown.2 Oh, and weather conditions that are actually livable! In between the endless pendulum extremes of heat blankets and torrential downpours in Beijing, there’s the happy medium that is breezy Guilin weather.
… so ends the first day of my Guilin / Yangshuo travels. I’ve still got three more days worth of photos to post! Hope all is well.
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footnotes:
1: Why do the landmarks here have such pretty names? You’ve got Peach Blossom River, Reed Flute Cave, Seven Star Park, Moon Hill, etc. Even the city itself is called Forest of Sweet Osmanthus. Not only that, the places actually live up to their names. For example, Moon Hill gets its name from its natural crescent-shaped formation, and Guilin is known as the Forest of Sweet Osmanthus for … self-explanatory reasons. You’d never find such namesakes in Beijing or Shanghai, not that their rivers are really deserving of them anyway.
2: I probably mentioned how pollution is so bad in Beijing and Shanghai. When I landed via plane in both cities, I couldn’t make anything out from the window view except for white because of the poor air quality. And even so, nobody in the airplane really cares about the aerial view except for the particular girl with a big camera who simply has to take a picture. But when the plane was landing in Guilin, everybody wanted to take a look outside because the aerial views of the rice fields, mountains, and rivers are something to be reckoned with. That also happened to be the one time I let my brother have the window seat.
:O :O :O :O That’s SO gorgeous. I love the first picture especially. So so so so gorgeous.
I love those pretty names–and it’s even better that the places live up to them!! Names are important.
Oh, man. I knew the pollution was bad in Beijing, and the weather is ridiculous, but I’d heard that Shanghai was nicer, haha. I guess if I ever return to China, it’ll be Guilin I’ll go to.
Is that relatively close to Beijing? Doesn’t matter, though, I guess. And whoa, stinks about the window seat!
I can’t wait to see the rest of the photos! Guilin looks so beautiful.
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Cindy, on July 25th, 2008 at 10:55 am, replied:
I have so many photos to put up; it’s ridiculous. And yes (!!!), Guilin is definitely something to visit. Unfortunately, it’s not very close to Beijing, especially not by car. It’s in the southwest portion of China, but it’s a two-hour plane ride from Shanghai.
As far as Shanghai weather goes, the pollution isn’t up the wazoo as Beijing, but that’s not to say the air quality is completely pristine. It’s just a thick blanket of heat/humidity that really makes the summer unbearable. Nevertheless, I still think Shanghai is worth visiting!
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Ohh you’re making me want to visit China now.
I am in utter awe of the pictures. So lovely. ♥
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