Trip down Li River and Reed Flute Caves

July 24, 2008 Thursday
Way told us about some of the history of Guilin this morning. One of the things he talked about was the Flying Tigers, American pilots who came and helped defeat the Japanese in WW2. Jane Lister’s dad was a Flying Tiger so it was real fun for her to hear they are still famous in China for helping them at that time. He told how the Flying Tigers painted their planes with sharp teeth and pictures of their girl friends. Then we all sang the song Way said the Flying Tigers sang…”You are my Sunshine”.
He told us a little of the minority that lives in Guilin, the Chong and the Cowpat (my interpretation of the way the said the words). He explained what they are famous for and some of the customs of the mountain people. They are wonderful singers and they come together often for festivals and celebrations. They sing, echo, and harmonize, and are famous for the musical abilities. They are famous for the herbs they create for illness. He explained that they don’t have doctors and they know how to heal diseases with the herbs. They grow a lot of rice here. Their houses are made up of many floors. The first floor is for the animals, the second is for the people and the third floor is for storage.
We went on a 3 ½ hour tour on the Li River. It was fascinating how young kids would paddle these canoe boats up to our boat and try to sell their homemade crafts to us. They would open the window of our boat to get our attention. We had to be careful to keep our valuables away from the window so they would not be taken. We had lunch on board. It was interpreting how they cooked our food on the back of the boat. We saw several smaller boats, with local farmers, paddle up and sell the cooks their live chickens for our lunch. It was hard to eat it after that. We saw several water buffalo along the way and some fishermen with the cormorants. I took lots of pictures.
When we stopped we got to go shopping a little bit and found a few items to barter. It was really fun.
The last thing we did before dinner was went to a famous (everything is famous in China) teacher university and got to watch a demonstration with Chinese art. It was good too. Then we came back and went to another hotel for dinner. Tomorrow is our last full day in China.
July 24, 2008 8 AM.
First we went to the Flute Reed Cave. The people used these caves to hide in when enemies came after them or in the WWII when the airplanes would bomb the area. The entrance used to be so small only very little people could enter. Now they have made the entrance much bigger, put in electricity, and good steps to make it all save. The reason it is called Reed Flute Cave is because when villagers were hiding in there there was nothing to do but play music. The flutes would echo through the caves entertaining all who were there. This cave is 500 meters long and amazing. They estimate there are hundreds of caves this big in this area. These caves were discovered (again) over 100 years ago when a boy lost a water buffalo. The whole village went looking for it because it was so valuable and found it crying in this cave. I remember how Tempenogas cave impressed me so long ago, but it was very small compared to this. It was amazing. If I needed to come to China to live, Guilin is where I would choose. It is green and beautiful, with hills and valleys, mountains and rivers.
They then took us to the pearl factory where we learned all about fresh water pearls and sea pearls and why sea pearls are so much more valuable. Of course I did not buy anything, because I cannot afford such expensive things.