Flying to Xi'an...

Woke up at the top of Longi. Nice breakfast. Gave the older gentleman our two overnight bags and down the mountain he went with them in the big basket on his back. We would then leisurely stroll down all those steps going back to our bus. 

Here are some pictures of the bus ride back to Guilin. One area had doors made out of metal, looked like silver on some of them. The last picture is of the modern city of Guilin and the beautiful way China has of landscaping the sides of the highways in places. They believe in planting lots of trees so that it purifies the air. They also landscape in soothing shaped patterns and colors of the plants. Very nice.

We were to visit the 'Twin Pagoda's' in Guilin. We learned that a pagoda is like a library for sacred texts. The temples are for worship, not the pagodas. 

Our last lunch in Guilin would be at a dinner theater venue. It has a huge stage, theater seating, and then a buffet area for the food. We did not see any performance on the stage but we did enjoy this real buffet. All our other lunches were served on big Lazy Susan's. They would bring out a bowl of one dish and set it on the Lazy Susan. We would spin it around so each person could get a bit of the food in the bowl. While we were doing that they were would bring out new dishes at a time. You ended up with 6-8 bowls of different dishes for everyone to share and a big bowl of rice to share. We learned the little plate is for the food and the little bowl is for the rice. They were kind enough to always place chop sticks as well as a fork at each place setting. For those who are 'chop stick challenged', i.e. me, this was a big blessing. But the buffet today was actually two very long tables decorated with dragons as well as some noodle stations. They are really into their noodles and they want them fresh. So a person would be making and cooking noodles at these noodle stations as they were to be eaten.

This restaurant was located inside a huge hotel. The lobby decorations for the hotel were definitely a photo opportunity.

At some point Claude and I each got our own can of soda. His is Coke and mine is Sprite. Usually, a 2 or 3 liter bottle of each of these beverages was placed on the Lazy Susan at lunch and you were given a small glass to serve yourself. Can't remember how we each ended up with a can of our own but it was a photo op for sure.

The Guilin Airport was our next destination with a plane ride to Xi'an. We would arrive there in the evening. This was easily the most elegant of our hotel rooms. The view out of our window that night was of the Xi'an City Wall lit up.

The room was actually two complete rooms, one living and the other a bedroom. We also had a guest bathroom, a bar area, and an enormous full bath off the bedroom. 

In order to pack light, Claude and I plotted our clothing knowing we would need to do a little hand laundry at some points in our trip. This was the first night for that. I washed out the items we needed and hung them in the bathroom and on hangers over the tub area. I assured Claude I felt a lot like the television show "The Beverly Hillbillies" in this elegant room with my laundry hanging around.