Day 13

Shanghai to Guilin to Yangshuo 

Date - 14 May

Weather - Sunny and warm 

Accommodation - Jasper Hotel, Yangshuo

Our early morning call was 4.00am and Henk and I had our bags down in the lobby for 4.45am for the bus. With the exception of two of our party not getting the early morning call it was all very efficient and we were given breakfast bags with juice, fruit, muffin and croissant. Barb and Michael were given assistance packing by the hotel staff and they were on the bus in no time.

Once again we had to go through security and passport control. Even domestic travel requires passport checking. The plane trip took two hours from Shanghai to Guilin and we immediately on the bus heading to the city centre of Guilin where we had lunch. After lunch we spent two hours on the coach driving through picturesque countryside with large limestone outcrops onto Yangshuo calling into a tea plantation on the way.

The plantation, a government-owned experimental farm, was on a flat plain. We were given Chinese bamboo hats because it was light rain.

There was an explanation of tea growing and learned that the worst and biggest leaves which are the past their prime are used for tea bags. The prime leaves are the white tips which is white tea, the next is green tea and the last is black tea. It was interesting to note that the water should be boiled at 100 degrees for black tea but only 70 degrees for green and white tea.

We were given a taste of six tea combinations in one pot and this had properties for maintaining good health such as osteoporosis. It was very good and we realised that we are not drinking very good tea at home.

We arrived at a very large hotel at about five o'clock. Dinner was at the hotel.