We got up at 6:00 a.m. . . . again, and headed out to climb the hill overlooking Yangshuo. We thought it would be cool to catch the sunrise. We walked through town and to the park and up the 320 steps to the pagoda on the top of the peak. It had started to rain as soon as we left the hotel, which made the steps nice and slippery. We made it to the top and the view was quite nice. The sun was already above the Karst peaks but it was hidden by clouds. So, no real sunrise to speak of.

We headed back down to the park and watched the people for a while. They played croquet, bocce, and badminton, as well as doing aerobics and tai chi. We then headed back to the hotel and had breakfast. After breakfast we met the rest of the group in the lobby for a tai chi lesson.

We walked down to the riverfront and got in position. A bunch of locals and some Taiwanese tourists watched us as we achieved an enlightened state. The enlightment came as we realized that we looked pretty foolish and that it was difficult to learn the foot and hand movements at the same time.

Next, it was time for some determined shopping before checkout time and lunch, both at noon. We headed back to the shop where I had seen the dragon scroll that I liked and asked the guy how much it was. "¥200" he says. Note that it was 'only' ¥150 the day before when I spoke with the woman. As he expressed no real interest in bargaining, I eventually walked out.

We headed over to another shop where I thought I had seen a cool dragon scroll. I found a nice scroll with two silver dragons and another with a single gold dragon. Both were in a similar style with the same "caption." I also found several scrolls with bamboo that I thought Becca might like. One had a blue background, another had white, and the third had a tan background. All had blue silk borders. Meanwhile, Anne found a cool sideways landscape scroll that she liked (Yup, by another named painter).

I started the bargaining at ¥30 for the bamboo and the one dragon scroll. Let's just say that that was not much of a crowd pleaser. So I added Anne's landscape for an additional ¥20 (¥50 total). The proprietor suggested that a more reasonable price would be ¥580 - ¥260 each for the dragon and landscape, and ¥65 for the bamboo, apparently with a ¥5 volume discount. I eventually added in the second dragon and another landscape for Anne and we were in the ¥350 (us) and ¥450 (them) range. Anne pulled out two ¥100 notes for her scrolls and I pulled out my wad of small bills.

When bargaining, I tend to carry known quantities of small bills in different pockets and pull them out as if that is all I have. The proprietor had suggested splitting the difference (¥400) and I handed him ¥363 as if it was all we had. He eventually, grudgingly accepted it, as if he wasn't making about ¥150-200 on the deal. So we walked out with five scrolls for ¥73 ($9) each. Not excellent, but not too bad as these were nice scrolls.

Unfortunately, we ran a bit late in our bargaining and we didn't get back to the hotel until 11:30. We asked the person at the front desk if we could check out a little late and that was OK. So, we headed upstairs, took quick showers and packed.

A couple of quick notes on bathrooms generally, and showers in particular. The shower consisted of a handheld nozzle and a drain in the floor. No tub, no stall, no curtain, nothing to keep the water from drenching the bathroom. This was true in most places we stayed. In addition, you do not flush the toilet paper down the toilet. You place it in the little wastebasket next to the toilet. Why? Because the sewer system is not capable of dealing with paper. Failure to comply can result in the whole hotel sewer system backing up. That, apparently, would be bad.

So, we met up with the rest of the group and checked out. I thought that I had forgotten my water in the room (actually Anne had taken it), so I ran back up to look for it and the staff had already checked out the room. In China they immediately send someone up to your room when you check out. This is to make sure you didn't A) leave anything, B) take anything, or C) use the minibar.

We headed over to The Swingers, which had good food. We ate Chinese (family) style where a number of dishes are ordered and placed on a lazy-susan. You simply turn the lazy-susan around to get what you want and grab a piece or two off onto your plate. Do not eat directly out of the serving bowls. Place the food on your plate, even if you simply touch your plate with the food. It started to rain, but then changed its mind. Instead, it got intermittently windy--so windy that several large umbrellas and some stands got knocked over occasionally.

After lunch, Anne, Sally, and I decided to get massages. Anne stopped at the shop where her kimonos were being made (matching robes for her and her kids), but they were not ready yet. Next we stopped in a store that sold knock-off CDs and DVDs. We were amused by some of the misspellings in the artists, titles, and even copyright notices. My favorite was "Bry and Adams." On some of the DVDs the titles, pictures, and summaries did not match, and on one the copyright notice was actually the summary of a different movie.

We headed to the massage parlor (¥35 or $4.50 per hour) and I got the crap beaten out of me by a young Chinese woman. They are big on pressure points, especially on applying large amounts of force to pressure points. It felt like she was balancing her entire body on her elbow, which was pressed into my back. I was wondering if she was going to just start kicking me for awhile. I guess that was extra. Fortunately, Anne and Sally seemed to have enjoyed their massages.

We headed back; Anne and I stopped at Lou's Bakery (featured on the canvas sides of every bicycle-driven rickshaw in Yangshou) and picked up some food, as there was no dinner scheduled. Anne picked up her kimonos and we headed back to the hotel to catch the bus to the Guilin airport.

The ride to the airport was interesting for about 30 minutes until I fell asleep, and then it was great! We learned about some of the Chinese minorities. Apparently, the Quing Dynasty and the Nationalists both tried to exterminate the non-Han minorities. Because of this, the various ethnic minorities supported the Communists, and the Communists have repaid that support by allowing minorities to have multiple children and semi-autonomy.

We also learned about Bell Towers. Bell towers were used as watch towers, warning towers, and as meeting and gathering places. They can be found in just about every town in China.

We arrived at the airport and found many amusing signs. One sign of special note was the one on several of the seats in the boarding area that were set aside for "Elderly pregnant children." We sat on those seats. The plane was, miraculously, not delayed, although it left 20 minutes late. I napped through most of the flight, although I managed to wake up for the snack, which consisted of peanuts. Fortunately, I had not woken up for the nasty fruit-esque substance that comprised the snack on the flight to Guilin.

We took a bus to the ship that would take us down the Yangtse for the next few days. We arrived a bit late, and were the last group to get on the boat. Apparently this is a hallmark of Ian's groups. The ship weighed anchor within 10 minutes of our embarking.

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