Up at 6:00 am -- luggage out the door -- finished breakfast by 7:30 am -- I ate too much.
We are off to the airport by 9:05 am for a 2-1/2 hour Noon flight to Guilin -- a town with a population of 720,000 -- main industry is tourism.
As we drive to our hotel in Guilin about 3:00 pm -- we notice the beautiful mountains -- very distinct shapes -- this is yet another terrain in China that is new to us. People like to come here because the air is very clear since there is no industry. Guilin is an ancient city dating back to the first emperor around 221 B.C -- he's the guy with the terra cotta soldiers in Xian. However -- tourism really got going here in the mid 1970's after Mao died.
On the ride to our hotel -- The Shangri-la -- Jimmy and our local guide, Chen, offer to take anyone interested to a place where we can have a reflexology massage for $20 plus a small tip. Several of us are definitely in -- off we go -- we don't even wait for our luggage.
About twenty of us arrive at Guilin Health and are ushered into rooms with large chairs --
our room has about eight. Then the masseuses come in -- they are all very young but tell us their training is two years. My guy is "Tom" -- he speaks a little English -- more than I speak Chinese. The massage is wonderful - for about 30 minutes we have reflexology and foot massage --- then a leg massage and then we turn around and have a back and neck massage to round out the hour. All Tom can talk about is Hollywood --- he knows all the action film stars. He's nice kid and a wonderful masseuse.
We next take a short walk to a lakeside area which is a favorite with photographers -- especially the Pagodas across the lake at sunset which is coming up. Apparently, Chen tells us, photos from this spot are favorites in print advertising.
Tonight we have dinner at the hotel -- a very large buffet with a glass of wine or soft drink included or beer (which is bottomless).
We are in bed by 9:00 pm
Thanks for Reading!
Pat
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