Chongqing to Yangshuo

Sunday, October 20, 2013
After breakfast on the Century Diamond, we checked out of our rooms and departed by bus from a pier in the city of Chongqing (pronounced chung ching). Depending how it's assessed, Chongqing may presently be the biggest city in the world with a population of about 32 million in its administrative area. Since it's on the Yangtze, the 4th longest river in the world, it has a transportation gateway to the South China Sea. Being inland, during WWII Chongqing was the temporary capital of China. It's often misty which helped protect it from Japanese bombers and it was the airbase for the famous Chinese Tigers.
Our local guide for the morning, "Judy", was a young Chongqing woman who met us at the pier and told us about the city as we traveled by bus to the Panda Zoo. She was hilarious. She shared everything through her own somewhat twisted perspective and she had a very dry, deadpan delivery. It seemed like she was practising her stand-up routine. Among other things, she told us that because Chongqing is so hilly, not very many people use bicycles. A few use them for exercise. A few others actually try to use them for transportation. Judy told us that those few have a special name in China. They're called "stupid people". She went on like this all morning.

 At the Panda Zoo, we had a pretty good look at the life of the Giant Panda. Whether in the wild or in the zoo, they sleep 12 to 16 hours a day and spend the rest of the time sitting eating bamboo shoots. Part of the reason that their numbers are dwindling is that they are too lazy to have sex. To encourage them, the zookeepers provide them with opportunities to strengthen their legs. They have a "panda porn program" in which videos of pandas having sexual intercourse are shown on screens in their cages. Young male pandas are also provided with intimate encounters with 2 females at once. We didn't really believe Judy when she told us this but we googled it later. All true.
After the Panda Zoo, Judy left us at the Chongqing airport for our flight to Guilin. We were sorry to see her go. After arrival in Guilin, we traveled by bus to the smaller town of Yangshuo. The countryside there is really beautiful. There are thousands of karst limestone outcroppings, similar to what we had seen last winter in Halong Bay in northern Vietnam.

 On the way, we stopped at a tea plantation where we all got snazzy hats and headed out into the fields. Perhaps we're a little slow but we never realized before that white tea, green tea and black tea all come from the same plant. It all depends on the maturity of the leaves. The harvest and curing of tea leaves is an art form in China.

 We also experienced a traditional tea ceremony where we learned more about proper steeping and serving of different blends of tea. White tea is the ultimate and green tea is fine. However, the Chinese people sneer at the thought of drinking black tea, especially if it's made from a tea bag. That's for export to foreigners.

 There is a right way and a wrong way to hold your tea cup. After the tea ceremony we checked into our hotel in Yangshuo and had dinner. After dinner we took the bus a short distance to a 3500 seat amphitheatre overlooking a lake, with the limestone karst cliffs in the background.

 We enjoyed the "Impression Liu San Jie" show which involves 600 performers in sampans and on moveable floating piers on the water. The lights, colours and costumes were fantastic.

 The show was designed by the director of the ceremonies at the Beijing Olympics.

 This show quickly became one of the highlights of the trip.

 As it ended, a full moon rose over one of the limestone mountains. An unforgettable experience!