From Yichang to Yangshuo

After leaving the cruise boat at Yichang, we spent a little time checking out the city, first going with our local guide to see an embroidery exhibition (ie shop), which turned out to be an outlet from the same minority community who had paddled us up the Yangzi tributary a day or two earlier.

Many of the products were folk designs -- kittens or koi! -- but some were reproductions of famous paintings, including some Europeans. Klimdt's 'The Kiss' was even more stunning in thread than in paint, leaping out so boldly...

We ate hot pot at a buffet in a larger shopping centre, this time with minimal chilli, then stood in the rain trying to catch a taxi at peak hour until we bumped into others from our group, out for some shopping; our hotel was only a short walk away.




The next morning we joined our next train, a hard sleeper this time. A lengthy trip meant we could actually finish the beer we had been carting around for several days, while entertaining Phoebe by playing Mafia or nearby children -- scientific testing over the trip has revealed
an average time of 2.7 seconds between the iPad emerging and a child sitting beside you.




It was a 4.30 start the next day, as we hurriedly packed up our carefully stowed gear to disembark from the train, and onto a crowded minibus for three hours to Yangshuo, an increasingly popular resort town set in a fabulous countryside of limestone hills jutting up from the otherwise flat landscape.







We have three days to explore it.


- Posted from the ground floor