Thursday, August 22, 2013

Yangshou update

The pub owner did a live stream from his
laptop to his big screen so we could watch
the All Blacks beat the Australians.
Jonathan with Michelle (from Rotorua) and
Anthony from Ireland.
We have been doing a bit of socialising prior to the orientation starting.  Yangshuo is very touristy so we are experiencing a gradual immersion in to China.  Lots of pubs and restaurants.
Lunch with Josh, Michelle, Bobby at the back,
Hoey at the front and me who has started drinking beer.


Barry, Anthony and Jonathan - doesn't every bookshop
have a bar?
On our orientation - we are doing some work.


The Li River.

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Yangshuo, Guilin, China

On 13 August 2013 we flew to Guilin airport and were then driven to Yangshuo about an hour and a quarter down the road.  Arrived to 38 degrees which was warm coming from the New Zealand winter.

Our first meal was a chicken dish and a prawn dish.  The chicken included the head and all the bones chopped up - hard to eat with chop sticks.  The prawns were small and whole, so that was rather crunchy. May avoid those in the future.
Yangshuo has the most amazing landscape, there are about 20,000 karst hills in the area. 
This is the view from our room. We are on the 5th floor and no lift so had to drag all our gear up the stairs.  Had I mentioned we brought 2 big bags with us each. Our bathroom is the traditional sort, so our thigh muscles are getting a work out.  



We went for a trip on the Lijang River.  Just amazing scenery. There was a huge number of tourist boats on the river, this area is the second biggest tourist destination in China after the great wall of China.
Have meet up with some other prospective teachers, Michelle from Rotorua who arrived late yesterday and Barry and Anthony from Ireland.  We went out for a meal last night - the dumplings were great. Lilly a Buckland employee took us there.  Buckland is the company we have signed our contract with.


View of Yangshuo from Bilian Peak which we climbed yesterday.