Dr. Thompson in China 12-13

Hong Kong and Southwest China were a feast of culture and beauty.

Classes started on Monday so I've been mostly in the classroom all week. We had several days in the 60s and buds are starting to appear and even some yellow blossoms. Hard to believe signs of spring in February but I'm loving it. I thought I'd share some pictures from my travels to Hong Kong and Southwest China.

Hong Kong is a wonderfully vibrant city. We stayed at an old but very nice YMCA hotel right on the harbor ... it reminded me of my "Y" friends in Minnesota. In addition to enjoying the city and hiking up Victoria Peek, we took the ferry over to another island and hiked along a beach trail through a couple small villages. It was a beautiful day and lots of fun.

Small fishing village we hiked to

Hong Kong Temple

The " travelators" were a series of escalators going up the side of the mountain.
Restaurants and shops were on both sides so in addition to being an
enjoyable way to get around the city, it was great for people watching.

Overlook from Victoria Peek

Cruising down the Li River, the connecting waterway between Guilin and Yangshuo was spectacular. A thousand years ago a poet wrote of the scenery in this area: “The river forms s green gauze belt, the mountains are like blue jade hairpins.” The extraordinary limestone peaks, sprays of bamboo along the riverbanks, cormorant fisherman in small boats, and picturesque villages were all great to see and quite magical.

Our next stops in Southern China were Kunming, Lijiang, and Dali. Lijiang's Old Town was a delightful maze of cobbled streets, rickety old wooden building, canals, and markets where people wore their traditional Naxi clothing. We all loved this area for the rich cultural experience. It is close to Tibet and you see many signs of the Tibet culture ... I even tried the Yak jerky :-)

This chick was probably our dinner :-)

Dali was also a favorite city ... Blue skies, clean air, quiet and charming. The old town is surrounded by the remains of Ming city walls and is characterized by cobbled lanes and stone houses. The Bai culture was also very interesting to learn about. The San Ta (Three Pagodas) has 16 tiered temples ... you exit one temple and just keep hiking up the mountain. The view from the top was definitely worth the hike. The characters inscribed in front of the Qianxun Ta read, "subdue forever mountains and rivers." The oldest structure dates back to 600 AD and the leaning pagodas are from an earth quake that destroyed many of the other buildings.