China Trip - Moving to the Past (Daxu Ancient Town) and to the Water (Li River)

We followed the minibus to an old town in Guilin: Daxu Ancient Town.

Hello from us!

Daxu is located approximately 20km from Guilin. It was founded in the era of Qin Dynasty and got its golden time as a trading hub during Ming Dynasty. The strategic location of the town nearby the Li River was the reason of its glory in trading all kind of things from all over China and Southeast Asia.

The start of the alley

A nice quiet town

A glimpse of Li River

Jack told us that the government was doing some restoration works to this town so that it could fully serve as a tourism spot. I really admire how Chinese government put the effort into tourism by building the infrastructure and doing a lot of restoration works. It's sad that Indonesia can't do the same even though Indonesia has no less beauty that China.

An old government officer's house that is undergoing restoration to be museum cum boutique hotel

We were invited to tour the house and we found that the owner collected so many antiques from around the world. He also collected gems and stones.

We were taking photo with 200 year old antique table 

We continued to walk until the end of the alley and found a stone bridge. We climbed the bridge and embrace the view.

The view of the town from the end of the alley

Li River

Beautiful, eh?

We also found quite a number of street sellers along the alley. They sold some stones, garments, and souvenirs.

It was a short visit but indeed we were happy.

And we continued our journey to Li River for our cruise on motorized bamboo boats.

But before that, Jack brought us to lunch nearby the pier. He told us it was one of the two restaurants at that area. The other one was new and the price was sky high. So, he chose this one for us.

When we moved out from our minibus, suddenly a group of street sellers approached us and offered us a lot of things: keychains, flowers, hats, accessories, etc. etc. We said no but they kept chasing us. In the end some of us had no choice but to buy from them. In fact they were not selling all the stuffs expensive, but I just did not like the way they chased us.

After finishing our lunch, we moved to our next itinerary.

The pier

We settled down and were embraced by the wind

The boats are made of PVC pipes

It was cold on the boat but the beautiful view paid all back. Especially when Jack rolled the roof back and we could view 180 degree of the hemisphere from where we sat.

Mountains, water, and the sky

I am blessed

What a blessing to see such a beauty

Shivering but happy

The mountains there resembling fingers

We took a brief stop halfway, There were some street sellers and instant printing photographers for us to splurge more. This place has been so commercialized.

The view from the pit stop

The stop is designed specifically for us to take the view of Qi Ma Hua Shan or The Paintings of Seven Horses Mountain. There are seven horses that can be spotted on the mountain. Can you spot them?

Can you?

Cheat sheet

After stopping for a while, we continued our journey till the end of the pier. And we found the view of our 20 RMB note here.

Not quite right angle

So we finished embracing the mountains, the river, the sky, and the winds.

Love is in the air,
Little Feet

Next Post - Busy Xingping and Busier West Street at Yangshuo