Weekend with friends---Yangshou

Hello Friends and Family,

Well, like we had mentioned, we had a great time in a city called Yangshou with friends this weekend. We spent three days in the small tourist town in the Northern part of Guangxi province. Yangshou is a popular tourist destination and backpacker's mecca, once visited even by former President Bill Clinton. Ever since we have arrived in China, our students have asked us if we have visited this area, so it will be nice to tell them that we now have. An added bonus was the opportunity to travel with very good friends that we have made since we've been in Nanning. They were great travel companions and it was fun to experience this part of China together. We stayed in a hotel just off a busy shopping street with restaurants and vendors, overlooking the famous Li River, which was more like a stream at this time of year, but nonetheless beautiful. We had a great time wandering the streets, buying souvenirs, had some great hot chocolate at a nearby cafe and watched some beautiful sunsets and moon rises. We also took a bike trip out into the Yangshou countryside, with unique mountain formations, beautiful rivers and orange groves. One evening, we also took a tour and watched cormorants fishing at night. We rode alongside a boat while we watched the cormorants fish. The spotlight was so bright that you could see them chase the fish in the water and the cormorants even perched on our arms at one point. We also experienced trains in China for the first time. They are much smoother than buses and it was nice to sit with friends and play games and snack on food as the countryside passed by. The train ride was long, but would have been much longer without fun people to be with.

A scene on the beautiful countryside bike ride







The Li River


We are tired now from two weekends straight of traveling. We are going to relax this week and enjoy more parts of Nanning, as well as continuing to foster relationships with friends and students. We hope each of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend and are earnestly preparing for Christmas. Have a great day. Talk to you soon.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson