Day 1 - Guilin

We arrived in Guilin from Beijing today, and drove to downtown Guilin from the airport.
The air was humid as we drove past rice paddies and water buffalo. Our local guide, Fay, has always lived in Guilin and was quite knowledgable about her hometown, and spoke excellent English. She told us a lot about the city, the residents, and the legend of how the 9,999 mountains in Guilin were created.
We checked into our hotel, Hotel Universal on Jiefang Dong Road, which had a rather nice view of the Li River - and free internet!

We then wandered around town, and went down to the river, where someone had brought several giant inflatable transparent balls filled with air, which for a few yuan you could climb inside and perform your best gerbil impression.

We walked along the river to the famous Elephant Rock, and spent the afternoon exploring the paths above and around the rock and the park. 

Later that evening we floated along the river, which was illuminated with multi-colored lights in the trees and bridges, and watched as a fisherman demonstrated how to catch fish with the assistance of a cormorant (poor bird!).

Some will call it gaudy, what with the illuminated mini reproductions of the worlds famous bridges spanning that part of the river (!), but admittedly it’s pretty eye-candy set against a magnificent natural backdrop, and a relaxing way to spend the evening, sipping beer while floating along river. A nice end to a great first day of our adventure!