fun2rv: IMPERIAL JEWELS OF CHINA

DAY 13 - Beijing and Guilin

After breakfast, we said goodbye to most of our bus friends and met our new bus friends. Most of them had been with us on our previous bus, so we only had a few to get to know. The majority of them were from Britain and they sure were a great bunch of people to travel with. We were pleased to still have our guide, Jimmy. Off we went to Beijing airport and this was where Judi got into a run-in with security. Apparently, her lithium charger for her iPad was not permitted on the plane, even though it had already been on 4 China flights. She argued with security but of course it was of no use. As the lady apologized to her, she picked up her charger and it was placed in a box full of similar ones. Of well, when she got home she ordered another one from Aliexpress .. upgrade, lower price.

As soon as we landed in Guilin, we could sense it was special. A high tourist area, it is the only place in China were a person can visit for up to 72 hours without a visa. A relatively small city of only 880,000 people, it caters to English speaking tourists. It was nice to get away from the busy crowded intensity of Beijing and to see the beautiful scenery and lovely gardens.

Our hotel was the Shangri-La and it was by far the most beautiful place we stayed on our whole trip. It had lovely gardens surrounding the hotel and we walked them just before sunset. A lot of ethnic people live in this area and they did a musical presentation in the hotel lobby as well as outside. The buffet was the best we had experienced so far with many of the dishes being more than we could imagine. They had eel soup, turtle soup (which we would never eat) and things we could not even begin to identify. It was nice to relax and enjoy the beauty of this place.