We love Beer! Natural Beer! And other musings...

High: Free internet!
Low: Free internet has a price -- copious amounts of 请到撇酒 ("Natural" Beer) ! We just finished our 2nd large bottle, so this is going to be short.
AHA: Alden had thought that perhaps her slightly emotional reaction [read: immediate tearing] to watching sports would not follow her to Beijing -- unfortunately, this is not true. At every photo finish or endearing commercial break -- so flow the tears from Alden's eyes. If an athlete cries, Alden cries. Even with the Chinese commentary, she cries.

We actually have blessedly little to report today (I know those of you excited to read our epic posts will be seriously disappointed). After we wrote yesterday we made our way back downtown in Guilin to the pedestrian street, created in 2001, and wandered for a while peering into the numerous shops and stalls. We eventually made our way to "the coffee shop," which was actually an outdoor bar with a huge tv showing women's soccer and then a lively game of table tennis (the Chinese really love their table tennis). Two funny things, 1) Amy didn't know ping pong was an Olympic sport and 2) Table tennis players spit on their balls before they serve. A nice young man was kind enough to create a cut-out of Amy's profile, complete with glasses and a rather oversized chin. This, of course, occurred totally without her knowledge until it appeared in front of her face and he promised to sell it to her for a very good price -- truly flattered, she politely declined.

This morning we woke up early to meet our guide for the short ride to the dock, where we met our boat for the day. The boat was like a small version of a Mississippi River touring boat, and had two levels with a large outdoor deck on the second level and an air-conditioned cabin on the first. There were about 100 people on board, so it was full but not terribly crowded. The views along the Li River were spectacular, and our hundreds of pictures won't do them justice. (Darren -- Alden was bird-watcher woman today and thought of you). We were on the boat for about four hours as it made its way from Guilin to Yangshuo, where we are now. Yangshuo was originally a fishing village, but attained some popularity when Zhang Yimou (who directed the opening ceremonies) created a show depicting life of minorities in the area (Fact: China has over 56 minority groups). We're going to see the show in a few hours, and will report on that tomorrow.

When we disembarked in Yangshuo, our guide, Jenny, suggested that we walk to our hotel. There was a car option, but it was 10 yuen (a little over a dollar) and hardly seemed worth the money, as she said the walk would be about "20 to 20 minutes." Five minutes later it began to rain, but the real challenge came when we actually put on our raincoats, since it is over 90 degrees and at least 100% humidity. Red-faced, sunburned, and exhausted, we arrived at the hotel about 45 minutes later.

We saved ourselves a whole dollar though.

Granted, it is definitely the nicest hotel we have stayed in thus far and it's a shame we're only here for one night. Tomorrow we're back to Beijing and the adventures of the big city! And events, finally!