Guilin is a beautiful place in China, but Yangshuo is better.

So the best part of the study abroad is the schedule. We just got done with a week vacation, and I have another 10 day vacation coming up. But first thing's first. Guilin is a beautiful place in China, but Yangshuo is better. That's a quote from our tour guide's business card, and it's very true.

Our trip to Guilin and Yangshuo started out with a 24 hour train ride. If you're thinking that that sounds like it would be miserable, you're wrong. Given the choice between a 14 hour plane ride from America with in flight meal/movie and stewardess and the sleeper train, I would choose the sleeper every time. The downside? Loud Chinese people and stinky. The upside? Loud Chinese people, the trains go through the night, and you can roam around and talk to people. The trains are just rows of beds, so the majority of the time spent on the train is sleeping, reading, playing games if you're with other people, or looking at Chinese people or vice versa.



The 10 of us hopped in taxis and "bread cars", which are mini mini vans.


And headed to our hostel. I was surprised how cool Guilin was. Really cool mountains, and there was one with a little hole in the middle.



After that we got some dinner, walked around a bit, found a market and bartered a bit and then called it a day.

The next day we went to seven stars park. It was pretty cool. A bit too much like a theme park. Still very cool. Right when you walk in, if you look to your left you'll see this:



We kept walking a bit and saw this little booth where you could take pictures with peacocks. We were all going to take the picture, but realized that it cost 5 yuan (about 75 cents), so everyone except us three backed out.

There was a waterfall. I wanted to stick my feet in it, but it seemed kind of gross. Brinley stepped in it on accident.



It's a very green place.



Camel's are perhaps God's ugliest creation? But I still got on one for 10 yuan. Notice the droopy hump.



The panda's at the zoo that they had are the big attraction. I've heard that zoo's in China aren't that great to go to. In fact they're depressing. I found that out first hand with this panda, trapped like a prisoner.



Well, it takes forever to post pictures. That's guilin. And I have tons more from yangshuo. I'll post them on Tuesday since I only have one class that day. Until then.