10/15/07-Guilin (Reed Flute Cave, Cormorant Fishing)

Guilin has a population of a little more than 600,000 people and is renown for its Karst peaks. These are tall elegant pinnacles of weathered limestone of various heights (averaging around 500 feet tall). Any self-respecting tourist magazine of China is splashed with photos of these scenic wonders. Inside the Karsts underground rivers and percolating water have carved out underground caverns, containing beautiful stalagmites and stalactites.

We woke up to a nice sunny day and a beautiful view out our hotel room window of the city with spectacular mountains in the background. Right outside, however, they were in the midst of excavating a property for the construction of a Wallmart. Oh, well.

Breakfast was good, but the dinning area very crowded so our group was split up. We ended up sharing a table with a delightful couple from Scotland who were super-enthusiastic about the area and the Li river cruise that we were scheduled to take the next day.

Our first stop this day was a nursery school where we observed 3-4 year-old children in class painting and 5-6 year-old children dancing and exercising. They were all so, so cute. Later, each one of us was offered a painting by a child. It was quite touching.

Across the street from the school was a beautiful lake surrounded by a park. We had some free time to enjoy this placid place.

Then, it was off by bus to the Reed Flute Cave. Unlike caves that we were used to, this one required a climb up stairs to enter the cave from the top from which we descended gradually through the cave back to the bus area. The cave itself was spectacular, albeit a little stuffy. The stalactites and stalagmite formations were graceful and complex. The lighting was very adequate for viewing but not enough for decent picture taking. Of course, before entering the cave at the top, we had to pass through a gift shop. Here, we fell in love with a lovely statue of a native girl and bought it after serious bargaining. The statue arrived at the exit from the cave nicely packaged for us.

Lunch was taken at the hotel, and we then had the afternoon off. We took a short nap, and went for a stroll with Lynda, Darrell, and Melinda for about an hour and a half. We walked 4 blocks to a mall and basically returned. Dinner was at the hotel (good but nothing special).

There was an optional evening tour which most of us took with Ling. The first part of it was a boat ride on the Li river (not the beautiful ride for the next day), where we followed fishermen in long long low bamboo rafts who employ trained Cormorants to catch the local fish. The birds do this by diving under water and grabbing the fish in their mouths. The birds' throats are restricted so they can't swallow. The fisherman then reel the Cormorants in, pull the fish out, throw the fish in baskets and the birds back in the river. We stayed close enough to the boats to observe this process many times. After returning to the shore, the restriction is removed and the birds are fed canned fish so they never acquire a taste of the the ones in the river. That way they would never want to eat the local fish. All-in-all it was fascinating to observe the birds and men acting together.

The second part of this outing was a night city tour. The city was alive and well lit. We saw parks, pagodas, beautiful graceful bridges (many designed after ones in Europe), and lots of trees. There is a particular tree (Osmanthus) which has the most fragrant flowers. Interestingly, it only blossoms this time of year. As a result, we often passed areas where it smelled as if a perfumed woman had just walked by. It was a magical little adventure.

To see pictures taken this day click Guilin.

Note: The seats in the pants of little children have a flap that is left open. It seems that when a baby is one month old the mother or grandmother (many grandmothers literally raise children while the moms go back to work) squat over a drain while holding the child in a squatting position as well. When the baby finally does their duty the person makes a whistling sound. Over time, the baby associates this sound with having to make and then repeat the noise to alert people that ...well you understand. In this way, children do not have to wear diapers except at night and experience no diaper rash. Very clever, if not somewhat Pavlovian.