Guelin

Clean-up

Guelin is a pretty city in Southern China, on the Li River, in a landscape of eroded limestone, with dozens and dozens of small but steep limestone hills scattered all around. They built a nice promenade on both sides of the river (so I had the best jogging of anywhere on the trip). The city is also blessed by a string of linked lakes, around which they have a string of parks. Very lovely.

One thing I remarked very early in the trip, back when we were in Beijing and traveling alongside the waterway in the city moat, was how clean the water was: no plastic bags, no cigarette butts, no newspaper, no rags of cast-off clothing ... none of the detritus of urban living that so sullies the many waterways in and around Bangkok.

The same thing is true of the Li River. It was clean. People were swimming in it when I went for my early morning jog. (Each swimmer had a plastic bag with him  ---  only saw men in the water --- , where I assumed they carried their towel and change of clothes, which they couldn't safely leave on the bank of the river.)

And here's one of the reasons for the cleanliness. There are people -- I assume employed by the state -- who boat back and forth fetching garbage out of the river. A very nice service!

Public dancing

I think everyone knows how popular Tai Chi is. You can see people doing various kinds of Tai Chi exercises (with swords, with flags, or with just their body) in the parks, especially in the morning. But one thing that is less expected is the number of people who like to dance in public places, such as parks. They bring their own music, and do traditional Chinese dances, or, very frequently, western-style ballroom dances (40's style slow lindy, waltzes, fox-trots). On one occasion one woman in our group was persuaded to join in the fun, and she played along, as the partner to another woman in a group-dance event.

Here in Guelin, taking a walk later that first day along the river promenade, we saw two ladies doing a fan dance. The one on the left was the instructor, and the one on the right was learning. What I liked about the scene was the grandmother smiling while watching them, and the little girl they gave a fan to, trying to follow along.

Twin pagodas

Here is a scene that caught my eye as I was walking along the string of lakes later that day ... a day that turned into a downpour as we caught the tail of a Typhoon that buffeted southern China. They light the pagodas up at night, a sight that we didn't catch this trip.