Yongzhou, China

Left Guilin early this morning for a five hour boat ride to Yongzhou in South West China. We saw incredible scenery as we traveled up the Li River to the small town of Yongzhou. They only have 350,000 people here. Such a cool “little” mountain town. 

We "sailed" on this boat.  It was warm inside but freezing on deck.  We were 
served a big lunch but we were very careful what we ate.  Not sure how it was
cooked and the if the dishes were clean.  A very memorable journey.

Our boat boat moved along at a snappy clip - 20 to 30 mph

The mountains are incredible, and each has a name.  The locals are so
 proud of their mountains.  "They say it is 100 miles of 
crystal clear water".  The water looked greenish to us.The Lijiang
 River is like one a hundred mile art gallery.

Misty and hazy today but so beautiful

More river rafts- it looks like this guy picks up trash in the river

Would you like to try some "snake wine"?  The smell was not inviting

The Panda Bears would love eating all of this bamboo

Very different mountains than we have ever seen

The hills are full of farms like this.  Tree, vegetables, fruits...covered
 in plastic to protect from the cold

A trash can..such interesting signs

We enjoyed our five hour trip down the river and were greeted by these 
beautiful flowers and orange bushes.  Very popular for the New Year

We walked from the boat dock to our hotel room through a very 
charming little town.  Shops everywhere!

Pizza sounded so good for dinner but we had Chinese and it was good.

We headed to the country side in golf carts that held six people.  
This was the China we wanted to see.

This is an incredible way that a building is put up with bamboo stakes!

We stopped to take pictures and I wanted you to see our "golf cart"

Many vacant buildings that have not been finished.  It looks like the
 family lives in some part of the house.  We traveled on muddy dirt roads. 
It was fun to wave to little children and families huddled by wood fires to keep warm.

Very beautiful rice paddies

The brick structure is an aquaduct that stores water to use on the rice paddies

Every 7 years the rice paddies have to rest. Rice drains
 all of the nutrients out of the soil.

Banana Fields

This "mountain" is right in the middle of the farm land.

Had to pay a little money to get my picture taken with the
 water buffalo and his owner

Is this a perfect garden or what?  All of the work is down by hand
 just like they did a 100 years ago.

This is very likely one of backyard foundaries that were built in the Great Leap
 Forward in 1960-61 to industrial rural areas to make steel.  All of the
 people had to give up their pots and pans and donate to the cause.

A hole in the rock  - does Southern Utah have one?  
We loved our journey to the country side.