Guilin, China

International Labor Day, May 1st, is one of three "golden" weeks in China. Guilin was packed; it felt like the Fourth of July with families strolling, bands playing and fireworks. Flagging down a taxi to take us to Reed Flute Cave, we soon discovered we had a guide for the day, a lovely, honest, lady taxi driver who just wanted to wait for us and shuttle us between sites. Under ground, the colored lights added drama to the stalactite and stalagmite formations. At Elephant Hill Park, we climbed to the top of the hill to get a good view of the city and all the surrounding mountains. These unique, white and green mountains stand alone with rounded peaks. Every formation has a name, though sometimes one must have an active imagination to see the shapes.

"Go with the flow" moments come often in China. For example, we asked a driver, "Why are we stopped?" "The road is closed." "Why is the road closed?" "No one knows." Or in a restaurant, we asked, "Do you have spicy sauce?" "Yes." The waitress brought us forks, then napkins and finally we had exhausted our pantomime skills and gave up. Our number one, go with the flow, moment came during the taxi ride to the airport when the taxi got a flat tire. "Ten minutes," the driver said shooing us out of the taxi and onto the side of the road. As we stood there feeling vulnerable and annoyed, he got to work, changed the tire in six minutes and got us to the airport in time for our flight.

Other awkward moments were avoided because our neighbor wrote in Chinese, "We are vegetarian" on an index card. Thanks Mardi! It was priceless. Showing postcard pictures of places we wanted to go and having the hotel clerks write directions in Chinese also worked well. Tourism in China is set up for tour groups and people with bilingual guides.
For more photos of Guilin, click here.