Maine and Massachusetts. June 14 – 21, 2016.

This all started with a promotion by Boothbay Harbor Inn that $99 would get us a “run of the house” room during the month of June.  One thing we wanted to do while we were here last October was to go on a puffin seeing trip, but the cruises stopped in mid-August.  We recently found out how “Project Puffin,” started about 40 years ago by a Cornell Ornithologist, restored puffin breeding on several islands in Maine, so that piqued our interest even more.  CS, who had been on prior nature trips with us, also came along.

Our plan is to stay in Boothbay Harbor for 4 days, and meet up with Joe and family in Portland for a fifth day, and then drive down to Boston for two days, before flying back to New Jersey.

June 14, Tuesday.  CS came by at around 5:45 am to pick us up for the airport.  Traffic was heavy but flowing well.  We got to Newark’s Terminal A without a hitch.  My worries about TSA Precheck were unwarranted, and getting through security was quite straightforward.  The flight was full, departed on time, and was otherwise uneventful other than its bumpiness.

Our Alamo rental car – done through Costco Travel – is a Dodge Dart.  Some prior renter set the mileage to the metric system, I will see later if I can switch it back.  Since CS had never visited Portland before, we drove to Standard Baking Co. on Commercial Ave, where Anne bought a scone, and took a walk along the street.  There being no cruise ship in port, and this is relatively early in the season, not much was happening.  We then went to Fort Williams and visited the lighthouse, followed by lobster rolls at the Bite of Maine truck.

 Another visit to the Portland Head Lighthouse.

 Lobster roll again, of course.

Fish being loaded onto a truck, attracting a lot of sea gulls.

We got to Boothbay at around 1:30 pm, and decided to visit the Coastal Maine Botanical Garden since it was too early to check in anyway.  The garden is well laid out, but this may be too early in the season for flowers.

 Irises at Coastal Maine Botanical Garden.

 Lady slippers, as the sign says.

 Visitor on our balcony.

 Boothbay Harbor.

 Lobster processing pier in Boothbay Harbor.  You can order lobersters at these plants.

Anne and I slept for an hour or so, and then met up with CS for dinner at Mine Oyster.  CS and I shared ½ dozen Glidden Points, they were quite large – and they offer even larger ones!

We called it a day so we could catch up on our sleep.  Both Anne and I got about four hours last night.

Accommodation: Boothbay Harbor Inn (4 nights.)

June 15, Wednesday.  After a rather hearty breakfast at the hotel, we met up with CS at Pier 7, where we would board Pink Lady II for our puffin sighting cruise.  Given the location of East Egg Rock, the trip out there and back took about 1:45 hours, leaving the boat about 40 minutes to circle around the island a little more than twice.  While 150 pairs represent a great success story (in the 1970s there was one pair left), the number is still small, so I expected to see only the occasional bird.  We ended seeing quite a few of them, often in groups of up to eight.  And they are smaller than I expected, measuring about 11” and weighing about one pound.  Along the way we saw quite a few of the many lighthouses that dot this rather hazardous navigation area.

CS with his mirrorless SLR camera got some really good pictures.  Anne also was no slouch and got some nice shots with our point-and-shoot Canon PowerShot SX720.

 Boarding Pink Lady II for our first (ever) puffin watch cruise.

 Pemaquid Lighthouse, enroute to Easter Egg Rock.

 Eastern Egg Rock Hilton where summer students live in tents.  This building is the common area.

 Puffins were cooperating.  I imagine they don't have much fear of humans.

 Nesting terns attack if disturbed.  Observers stay a couple of hours in these blinds.

 Eider ducks are quite common on EER.

Mother and baby seal (barely visible).

For lunch we had hot dogs at Wannawaf whose slogan include the phrase “save a lobster.”

After a few false starts, we decided to drive down to Harpwell again, first over the Capstone Bridge, then to Erica’s Seafood where the three of us had five lobsters and soup.  That was certainly an interesting and in-expensive experience.  After dinner Anne wanted to head down another of those “peninsulas” and managed to find a lobsterman unloading his catch.  They took some interesting pictures.

 Land's End.  Jaquish Island in background, the house - accessible by boat or helicopter - is available as vacation rental.

Erica's Seafood located at end of peninsula.

 The seafood chowder soup is full of goodies.

 CS enjoying the two lobsters.  At about $8 each (cooked) a great bargain.

Ready in fifteen minutes.

Lobsterman sorting his catch.

 Each of these containers hold about 90 lbs of lobster.

 Said lobsterman being picked up by his girlfriend and child.  Not sure things will be so romantic during the winter season.

Pink sky at sunset.

June 16, Thursday.  We began our morning a bit late, at 10 am, and drove to Rockland to visit the Project Puffin Center.  The main attraction there are a 20-minute video describing how puffins were re-introduced to Maine after a long absence, and various artwork of the small bird.  Most artwork are of the “iconical” type where the puffins stand on a rock with many fish in its beak.  We also did a bit of souvenir shopping, a puffin mug and a small “teddy” puffin (for my sister.)

After lunch at a local restaurant, it was time for Captain Jack’s Lobster Boat.  This is a working lobster boat in which a captain and mate take out guests for one-hour runs where they recover trapped lobsters and rebaited the trap.  For the last fifteen years or so the emphasis has been on tourists, although they still collect legal lobsters and bait them with fish heads imported from Norway.  If today was any indication, lobstering – even in pleasant weather – is a difficult job.  Of the ten or so traps we visited, only about 4 lobsters were recovered, many had to be thrown back because of size and sex.  Imagine doing this in cold or stormy weather.

 On lobsterboat.

Legal lobsters have their clawed rubber-banded before being stored.  They tend to attack each other even in captivity.

Hens (female lobsters) with roe are marked with a notch and thrown back into the sea.  They are spared for the rest of the lives.

I was a bit tired driving down to New Harbor, but a few of the tangy cherries we bought yesterday kept me awake.  On the Hardy Boat puffin cruise were the same three Audubon naturists from yesterday – we actually saw Pete at the Puffin Center.  The boat is smaller, and the ride out is shorter at about 30 minutes.  We didn’t see as many puffins as we did in the morning, but those who took photographs said the lighting was much better.

 New Harbor, Maine.

 There are so many trap buoys.  One must be careful while driving a boat to avoid fouling the propeller.

 Second puffin trip.  The lighting is much better in the afternoon, so I am told.

This shot is taken by Anne.

Gillemots are cute in their own right, but next to the puffins they are just supporting actors.

We had dinner at Shaw’s in New Harbor.  Things seem a lot more expensive than they were last time we visited: 2 lobsters cost around $32.  Our meals were less expensive: I had fried oysters.  It was about 9 pm when we got back, CS could watch the NBA final game 6 from the beginning.

June 17, Friday.  We started relatively late, at 11 am.  We drove to a neighborhood preserve and decided not to walk the short trail, with its warnings about poison ivy and ticks.  We drove by Glidden Point Oysters and bought a dozen, which we shucked ourselves and ate at the picnic tables provided.  Shucking is relatively easy once you get the hang of it.

Red’s Eats was beckoning, so we made our way there, and discovered a line as long as we experienced last October – one hour wait.  We headed back to Damariscotta.  CS didn’t want to eat, he went shopping instead.  Anne and I had a quick bite at the Salt Bay Café.

Shucking Glidden Point oysters.  It gets easier as one does more of them.

In addition to the three of us, a family of four also joined the Oyster Farm and Seal-Watching tour.  We did the same thing last year; this time it was quite boring.  We did see an eagle and an osprey fight, and quite a few seals.

Boat for Damariscotta River cruise.

 Oyster farm on the Damariscotta River.

A group of seals enjoying the sun.

We tried Red’s Eats again, this time there was hardly any wait.  Anne and I shared a lobster roll and a side order of fried sea scallops.  They were not as good as I remembered them.

Red's Eats.

We did some light souvenir shopping after we returned to Boothbay Harbor.

 Traps and buoys at Boothbay Harbor Inn.

Another sunset view at Boothbay Harbor.

June 18, Saturday.  We left Boothbay Harbor at around 10:30 am, and stopped by Whole Foods in Portland for lunch before dropping CS off for his flight back to NJ.  Turns out his flight was delayed for over an hour, but at least he got upgraded to first class.

The Aspen Alternative was in the harbor this morning.  Wonder how it navigated its way past all the lobster traps.  A 164' yacht available for charter at $185,000 a week (plus expenses).  It can accommodate 10 guests!

Joe Jr’s car passed by ours as we were finding parking along Fore Street; they had just returned from a morning trip to Fort Williams where a children’s fair was held.  Emmie as usual was happy to see us, and so was DN, although he was more reserved in his expression.  After the children went to sleep, Joe and Jess went off for a snack by themselves while we watched the kids.  They woke up at around 4:30 pm or so, and their parents returned soon after that.  Both Emmie and DN are very comfortable with us, although they don’t see us that often.  Anyway, it was time for dinner – such is the children’s schedule – and we walked to DuckFat, a sandwich place.  At about 7 pm the children were showing signs of being tired, so Anne and I checked in at our hotel.

Dinner at Duck Fat, Portland.

Accommodation: Portland Travelodge (1 night).

June 19, Sunday.  After checking out of the hotel, our plan was to meet up with Joe at the Tandem Baking Company.  It turned out we didn’t have time for a leisurely stroll, so we took DN in our car and Joe walked with Jess and Emmie so we could meet up at the Casco Ferries terminal.  Our plan was to take the 10:15 am ferry to Peaks Island and then come right back.  We barely made the ferry.  The one that enjoyed the ride the most was Emmie, although I seldom mind riding on a boat.

A ride on the ferry on a nice day is always nice.

For lunch we ate at Eventide Oysters Café where we sampled oysters, many from Damariscotta River.  I guess if I spend time on this stuff I can give the different types different characterizations.  In any case it was an enjoyable meal.

Eventide Oysters.  Most were harvested from farms in the Damariscotta River.

Anne and I head back to Joe’s place and rested a while before we headed over to the Tsai’s for dinner.  Joe and family went straight there.  We brought along some lobster tails at $7 each from Whole Foods Portland (supposedly 50% off) and they tasted quite good grilled.

Father's Day BBQ at the Tsai's.  Lobster tails from Whole Foods.

Accommodation: Putnam Road (2 nights)

June 21, Tuesday.  It was nice to be able to spend some time at Joe’s place.  After a short flight from Boston, we took a Uber car to get home.

Guizhou, China and Hong Kong. May 19 – June 3, 2016.

Our friends Don and Agnes have joined this tour arranged by their friend Al for several years.  This year’s destination is Guizhou, and they asked us to come along.  Due to our prior commitments to a couple of Hope International events, we could only join them for the latter part of the trip.  We left Lancaster, PA on Wednesday so we can take the flight to Hong Kong on Thursday.

May 19, Thursday.  Eric came by to pick us up at 12:30 pm for our 3:10 pm flight.  This was an unusually early pickup for us.  We haven’t signed up for TSA pre-check yet, so I wasn’t sure if we would get it this time.  We did, and the lines were not that bad, so we ended up having time for lunch and a brief stop at the United Club.  Flight UA179 was delayed by close to an hour for minor maintenance issue (they couldn’t get an inside door to close properly.)  It was a packed flight, and I couldn’t use the entertainment system starting about four hours into the flight because the headset plug broke inside the receptacle.  Nonetheless the flight was generally okay.

I have always wanted to take a screen shot of when plane is over the North Pole.  This is from onboard wifi, we were above Svalbard, the northern tip of which is about 80N.

May 20, Friday.  It was relatively easy to find transportation to Shenzhen.  We rode in a minivan to the Shenzhen Bay customs point, and after clearing customs, continued to the Futian Exchange, where we changed into a sedan to get to our hotel (shared rides).  The hotel is located in the center of town, but far from the airport.  It also reminded me of Chinese hotels from a while back: worn down, staff with bad attitude, mediocre amenities.  Since all we wanted was some sleep for the evening, it was okay.  Rain was really coming down.

Hotel: Golden Central Hotel, Shenzhen.

May 21, Saturday.  We left the hotel at around 5:40 pm.  The heavy rain the night before made some roads impassable necessitating detours along the way to the airport.  Our travel agent had already checked us in CZ3673, we only had to collect our boarding passes and check in luggage.  Even though the security lines were quite long, the process was generally smooth.  It was a full plane, and our seats right behind the mid-cabin bathroom bothered us a bit, but the flight was generally okay.

The Shenzhen Airport is quite efficient.

When we came out of the secure area at the Guiyang airport, and the bus with the other travelers were in the parking lot.  The bus went for about 2 hours before coming to a rest stop, and we got to the “Seven Small Arches” tourist area at about 2:30 pm.  We basically took the park transportation to travel along a river, stopping along the way to tour various sites.  The most spectacular aspect was the many waterfalls (the claim is there are 68 of them).  The bridge with the seven arches was built in 1845, during the Qing dynasty.

 Overview Map of Libo Zhangjiang Scenic Area (荔波樟江风景名胜区).  Libo is the county, Zhangjiang is River Zhang.

 Ticket with multiple stops.  Each small section is torn off as it is used.

 A selection of photos from the day.

The rainy season made some of these cascading falls quite spectacular.

This is the "Small Seven Arches" bridge.  A bit of a disappointment for anyone not into its history (probably a disappointment even then.)

Our hotel was the Libo Scenic Imperial Resort which consists of a main building and other buildings each with several guest rooms scattered on the property.  Our room has a great view of two Karst hills which dominate this area.  Indeed the guide told us they had to level 38 hills to build the Guiyang airport, and our drive involved many bridges and tunnels.

 Dog jerky being sold at a rest area.  We saw dog meat advertised everywhere during the trip.  I was told this is allowed by U.S. Customers.  Clarification: didn't try it.

The main building of our Libo Hotel.

View from our room. 

Dinner was at the hotel restaurant, the food had a strong Cantonese influence.  On the walk back to our room I saw Mars and Jupiter in the night sky; the air quality in Guizhou reminded me of that of Yunnan.

Hotel: Libo Scenic Imperial Hotel, Libo, Guizhou.

May 22, Sunday. After breakfast at the hotel, we toured the “Large Seven Arches” area.  This refers to a larger bridge with seven arches, the original had collapsed a long time ago, replaced by the current one.  The river is not as spectacular as that of the “Small Seven Arches.”  The high light is definitely this hole the river cuts through, with an opening at the top.  We took advantage of a short ferry ride to get back to the bus.

 The three Chinese characters read "large seven holes," referring to the large arches that supported the bridge.  The bridge is either gone, or we didn't see it, our tour guide didn't make that clear.

The river cuts through the karst and leaves behind a tunnel.

 Inside the hole cut through the karst rock.

 View from the other direction.

Photograph of karst hills taken from this area.

Board the ferry for the return to the entrance.  The raft is made from several large sealed PVC pipes, but gets the job done on this calm river.

After lunch, our bus took us to the Kaili area.  Our target destination was a Miao Village; getting there involved a 45-minute drive on a narrow and windy road, with its share of harrowing moments.  We were surprised at the number of buses parked at the parking lot.  As the guide explained it, this was a planned project where all 1000 or so households of Miao ethnicity leased there houses which developers turned into hotels and hostels.  The main streets were lined with shops geared towards the tourist.  Both Anne and I thought the look was very similar to Agua Calientes, except the slopes were not as steep here.

For some reason, the vans that were supposed to pick us up at the parking lot couldn’t do it, and as getting to the hotel involved a long walk, so we took our suitcases from the bus, and picked out a few items for the evening in the parking lot, and proceed to walk to our hotel.  One of the group had a bit of problem walking, and was coming down with a cold to boot, so the process was quite slow, with Anne and I helping with his small wheeled backpack.  The hotel was a disappointment, but did have a nice view of the mountains.

 Entrance to "Thousand Miao Villages."

Getting to our hotel involved quite a walk, in the rain.

 View of Qianhu Miaozhai (Miao Village of a Thousand Households) from our hotel room.

To get to our hotel involves walking through this alley and up a pathway.

Most of these shops catering to tourists sell ukuleles, backpacks, and African drums.  These Chinese signs advertise different kinds of Chinese mediciation.

Hotel: Miao Village, Xijiang, Kaili, Guizhou.

May 23, Monday.  Today was a rainy day.  Breakfast was at a local place, we had eggs, boiled vegetables, and noodles.  It was a three hour ride to Zhen Yuan for lunch, after which we checked into our hotel "River View Inn".

 Idyllic villages dotted the landscape.

 We spent quite a bit of time walking through this village.

Villager going about her daily life.

The city of Zhen Yuan is built on the banks of the Wu Yang River (Dancing Sun) which makes an S turn at this location, thus making the Yin Yang symbol adopted by Taoists.  The temple across the street, however, has shrines to Buddhist and Taoist deities as well as other gods (e.g., the mythical early emperors of China).  There are many who believe this is where Tai Chi was first practiced, about 900 years ago.

 River View Inn (Wangjianglou Hotel).  There are many inns along both banks of the river.  Many business also have rooms for rent.

 Panoramic view from our hotel room.  Across the river Wuyang is a temple.

Temple on bank of Wuyang river.

 Photo taken on Zhusheng pedestrian bridge.  Our hotel is behind Anne.

 Instead of walking a bridge, perhaps one can get a ride on this boat?

 Typical scrumptious dinner.

 Buildings along the river are lit up at night.  Nice treat for tourists and locals alike.

This bend in the Wuyang River leads many to think Tai Chi originated in Zhenyuan.

The main street is lined by many small shops and restaurants, and is pleasant to walk in.  At dusk many buildings, including the temple, are lit up.  The hotel is much better than the last one, although the rooms are quite basic; for instance, there was no separate shower stall.

Hotel: Riverview Hotel, Zhen Yuan.

May 24, Tuesday.  Breakfast at the hotel was delivered from a kitchen nearby, and consisted of congee, bread, hard boiled eggs, and some stirred fried bak-choy.  We then drove to the Wu Yang River Scenic Area.  Our guide Jason slipped and ended up with a few cuts, but was game enough to go on.  We walked a few hundred yards past some vendors of BBQ’d local river products (shrimp, crabs, and fish) to get on a boatride that lasted about an hour.  The ride reminded me very much of the one we took while in Germany (Konigsee, if memory serves).  I thought here the cliffs were higher, Anne thought they were higher in Germany.  We passed by some piers that lead to paths into the mountains, where some minority people still live, and their means of contacting the outside consists of a long trek followed by a boat ride.  There is a hot spring in the mountains which is attributed to the longevity of people in a particular village.  There are several scenic spots along the cruise, among which are a fisherman and a peacock; both require a lot of imagination.

 Don doing his morning Tai Chi under the pavilion.

 Cruise on Wuyang River, with "peacock" in the background.

 Two more shots.

One member had a hypoglycemic attack on the return.  Don and I went ahead to try to get him something to eat as no one brought along any food.  He managed to recover after eating a potato pancake from one of the vendors along the way.  The boiled corn and leaf-wrapped dumpling got thrown away.

We then headed back to the new part of Zeng Yuan to have lunch.  Service was a bit slow, so we didn’t get done until around 2:30 pm.  It was a three plus hour ride to Tong Ren, our next stop.  There were no rest areas along a stretch of newly opened highway, which created a bit of a problem for many in the group – remember, I am the second youngest (other than the guide).  One word about rest areas: while there is still a lot of room for improvement, and should be avoided if possible, they are nonetheless much better than the last time I had to use them (from Beijing to Zhangjiakou, in 2010).

Lunch!

Tong Ren is a city of 1.2 million people.  We see a lot of construction with prices advertised at around Y3000 per square meter (roughly $50 per square foot.)  I wonder if the city will grow fast enough to fill all these empty units; a centrally planned economy can only take one so far.

Our hotel rivals any you see in a major Chinese city, and most things work in our room.  We had dinner at the hotel restaurant, and it was close to being elegant.

Like any other city, Tong Ren suffers from traffic jams during rush hour.  What was curious is how all the advertisement on taxi roofs get synchronized.

Hotel: Grand Metro Park Hotel, Tong Ren (2 nights).

May 25, Wednesday.  To save time, we all packed our lunches from the buffet breakfast so we didn’t have to spend time for lunch on our way to “Fanjing Mountain,” one of five sacred Buddhist mountains in China.  I have heard of the other four mountains, but not this one.

The mountain consists of three different “peaks” one could visit, together with several other temples scattered in various locations.  To get there, we took a minivan which traveled too quickly up a steep mountain road with many switchbacks, followed by a 5 km cable car ride that took over 30 minutes.  It was drizzling at the base station, but things turned ugly about 2/3 of the way up, heavy rain pelted at our cable car and strong winds swayed it back and forth.  It didn’t take much encouragement before six of us decided to go right back downhill, while the other six braved the trails.  We were partially motivated by people who said the service might be suspended.

Group photo at the bottom of Fanjing Mountain.

 View from inside cable car as we were making our way up.  It got worse as we got higher.

 Toilet regulations.  Good to know!

 Nice scenery at bottom of hill.

Weather at bottom hill was okay.  We walked around the temple courtyard a bit.

Turns out the intrepid group only walked for 15 or so minutes before giving up.  We ate our box lunches at the base station, and stopped by a temple on our way out.  It was close to 5:30 pm when we got back to the hotel.  Dinner was at this "Taohuayuan Customs" restaurant where the bottle of maotai liquor was opened – I didn’t have any.  It was 9 pm when we got back. 

This restaurant is located in a large complex.  Tonight there were very few people using the facilities in this complex, which includes an outdoor concert hall.

The (supposed) concert stage doesn't look like it has been completed.

May 26, Thursday.  The attraction for the day is Nine Dragons Cave.  There is a parking lot that’s close by the location, but a recent landslide blocked the way.  Instead we had to drive to another location, take a rickety ferry across the Jin River, and I slipped and skipped a few steps on my butt.  At that time it was more bruised ego than bruised body, but as I type this in the hotel room it hurts quite a bit more.  After the boat ride we had to walk over 2 miles to the mouth of the cave.  One of the group members had trouble walking, so it took an inordinate amount of time to there; Larry decided not to go in the cave.  This is supposed to be a big cave, but to me it just seemed so-so, with the usual stalactites and stalagmites.  Per the barometer on my iPhone, it was an 800 feet climb to the mouth of the cave, and a further 300 feet inside the cave.  Larry and Francis decided to come downhill on horseback.  Several others slipped also, for various reasons.

 Ferry that took us across the Jinjiang river.  I slipped on the steps leading down to the boat, and felt the pain for several weeks.

 The river was calm.  We had lunch at this restaurant.

 Don't be deceived by this seemingly leisurely stroll.  It was a long walk uphill.

 Finally, Nine Dragons Cave.

 A couple of photos inside the cave.

Frances decided she would pay the Y60 or so to come back in comfort and style.

Lunch was at a floating restaurant by the river.  We saw quite a few dragon boats practicing for the upcoming festival races.  After a 5-hour ride to our hotel in Guiyang, we didn’t meet for dinner until around 8:45 pm (kitchen closed at 9 pm.)  After dinner Anne and I walked around and managed to find a store that sold Diet Coke.

 The Caucasian members of our group were very popular: here taking a picture with the kitchen staff at their request.  Not too many foreign visitors in the area.

Dragon Boat on the Jinjiang.  The story is different from that of the Chinese version of Qu Yuan: a version has its origin as a dragon being slain by an angry father.  A guide told us being invited on such a dragon boat is a great honor for someone outside the village.

The hotel is located in a hot springs area; it is unlikely we will make use of the facilities.

Hotel: Poly Hot Spring Guiyang Hotel (2 nights).

May 27, Friday.  City tour for the day.  We first went to the “Red Maple Lake” where we took a boat ride to visit a Dong village with its drum tower.  Several in our group paid the Y5 to hit the five different drums at the base of the tower.  Red Maple Lake was created in 1958.  Its area is six times as large as West Lake, the famous lake in Hangzhou.  Over 100 villages with 18,000 inhabits were relocated for its creation.   It serves as a reservoir for the area.  Motor boats are allowed on the lake, and I was surprised to see no oil slicks where the boats are docked.

 Tour boats on Red Maple Lake.  The lake is very clean, I didn't see any oil slicks in the docking area.

 Unfortunately the highlight was this drum tower.  A tourist can pay a small fee to hit the drums.

Guizhou batik utilizes wax in the process.

After lunch at a rather non-descript restaurant, we headed to JiaXiu Tower.  During the invasion by Manchurians (which established the Qing dynasty), this area was the headquarters the last holdout.  Some decided to go shopping afterwards (Anne included,) the rest of us came back to the hotel to rest.

Jia Xiu Tower has considerable history behind it.

We met for our farewell dinner at 7 pm, again in the hotel restaurant.  We presented Al and Judy with a card and a (future) certificate to show our appreciation.  This was also a farewell dinner for the tour.

May 28, Saturday.  We said goodbye to Don and Agnes before we went to the Lobby to check out and to meet up with our guide Mr. Lu (Ted).  Waiting for us outside was a 7-passenger minivan that took us on a two-hour drive to Dragon Palace.  This is a cave with a river running through it, with boats that took passengers inside for a 20 or so minute roundtrip ride.  We could have gone further inside but decided against it since it would have been more of the same.

 Water cascading down from the hole behind us.

 The other side of the river.

 Entrance into Dragon Cave is via small boats.  Reminded me of all these Disney rides.

Typical lighted scene inside the cave.

A short drive took us to the Huangguoshu waterfalls.  We first had lunch with the guide and the driver at the “Rainbow Restaurant.”  HGS waterfalls is supposed to be one of the must-see sights in China.  The falls measure 101 meters (wide) by 77.8 meters, was discovered over 400 years ago, but mass tourism has been possible for only 30 or so years.  We walked past a bonsai garden to the top of the falls, through a cave behind the falls that offers a view of the cascading water, and down to the bottom of the falls.  From there we took an escalator to get back to the parking lot level.  While the distance is about 4 km, the trip was relatively easy as it didn’t involve a lot of climbing.

We passed by a bonsai garden on the way to the falls.

A short video clip of the falls.  The viewing area was flooded with tourists (pun intended) as evidenced towards end of clip.

You can walk behind the falls.

 All wet after the walk behind the falls.

Another view of the falls.

Both these attractions are rated 5A by some tourist authority.  While they are certainly nice places to visit, I didn’t find them particularly spectacular.  Indeed, Guizhou is a place that is probably better enjoyed at a leisurely place rather than as a whirlwind tour.

Our guide told some interesting stories during the day.  One was the legend of creation by the Miao’s which is passed down over the generations as a song, as the Miao’s do not have a written language.  It all started with a red maple tree with a leaf turning into a butterfly.  The butterfly laid 12 eggs, 11 of them hatched into different animals and plants, and one into human beings.  That’s why maple trees hold a special significance for the Miao’s, and every village would have one planted.  (My recollection of the story is incomplete, the tree trunk also played a major role.)  Another legend has to do with the Miao written language: it was lost in a lake.  Some conjecture the Miao’s did have a written language, and they decided to discard it so as not to record terrible aspects of their history.  Also quite interesting is that the Hmong people in Southeast Asia descend from Miao.  The guide claims he has led several groups of Hmong people from the US and their and the Miao’s languages have a lot in common.  Finally, he mentioned some of the derogatory sayings about Guizhou: the sky is never clear for three days, roads are never straight for three miles, people never have more than three cents to their name; meaning it’s rainy, hilly, and the people are poor.  The other sayings have to do with not having skills and boastful.  My observation is Guizhou has come a long way.  There must have been a lot of infrastructure construction over difficult terrain that resulted in excellent highways and passable rest areas.

The hotel was offering a discounted buffet at Y78 per person.  Not the greatest spread, and we avoided anything that was not cooked, but we have no complaints.

The square we see from out hotel room is buzzing with activities in the evening.

Hotel: Argyle Grand Hotel, Zhunyi.

May 29, Sunday.  After breakfast at the hotel, we met with Ted for the day’s activities.  The first stop was “Forest of Ten Thousand Peaks” located just outside of town.  This is a collection of over 20,000 karst hills covering an area of 200 km by 30 to 50 km – of course the park doesn’t cover the entire “forest.”   A small open van took us on a loop around the park, making several stops so we could view and take pictures.  Drainage from the mountains flood the paddy fields before joining a river that flows along the valley; the river eventually disappears into a sinkhole.  The guide tried to explain how this is related to the Chinese saying (The river and the well remain separated), but I am not sure I understand the reasoning.  While the hills are not all that tall (a few hundred meters), the number is impressive; I don’t recall having seen anything close to this.  The last section of the route took us through some of the villages in the valley, and we noticed the heavy rain from a couple of days ago have flooded many fields: the flooded corn plants probably won’t make it, many of the newly transplanted seedlings were washed away.  The villages look idyllic at a distance, but close-up it is a picture of hardship.  One great improvement over the past is famine is no longer an issue.

There are lots of these small hills in the Wanfenglin (Forest of Ten Thousand Peaks) area.  The water drains underground through the circular structure in the valley.

 The rating of a tourist attraction is partially based on how impressive the visitor center is.  Evidently this area only rates a 4A.

 Several photos taken during our tour bus ride.

Many of the formations have names.  This is called "the General."

 Several panoramic views of the peaks and the valley.

 Paddy fields in the valley make for great photographs.

Recent rains washed away many of the newly transplant paddy seedlings.

Selling vegetables along the roadside.

We had a quick lunch of dumplings at a park restaurant, at Y8 per bowl.  We stayed a little while to watch a show by native “Bu Yi” people, including “Seating Singing with Eight Instruments.”  A couple of clips below:

It took us about 90 minutes to tour the Ma Ling River Gorge.  Having spent a lot of time in Ithaca, we have seen our share of gorges.  This one is deeper (highest drop about 300 meters), and has waterfalls of various sizes pouring down from the edges.  We walked from the rim to close to the bottom of the gorge (about a 270 foot drop per iPhone) and took the elevator up.  We had to walk behind one of the waterfalls from the side; Ted helpfully told us this is downstream from the city, which explains the smell of the spray.

 Waterfalls cascade down from both sides of the gorge.

 This is downstream from a city, so the water is polluted.

 Drenched with said water after walking behind the cascade.

 These are formed by a process similar to how stalactites are formed.  They become prominent when the waterfall moves out of the way.

 If one goes hiking in a gorge, stairs are to be expected.

This little hairy insect is most interesting.  A search of the web hasn't uncovered anything like it.  There is something similar called "hairy aphid."

The lady collecting tickets for the elevator reminds me of what is wrong with many things in China.  She took her good time examining the tickets, the guides itinerary, and our passports (to make sure we are charged the right fare), meanwhile the elevator sat idle waiting for us.  A group got so disgusted that they decided to walk up instead.  I have seen good service at many locations, but that attitude is still not prevalent in many areas.

It was then time to return to Guiyang.  The trip was about 360 km, and took a bit over four hours.  Anne and I had dinner at a nearby restaurant.

 Dinner at this local restaurant a short walk from our hotel.

Dishes we ordered.

Hotel: Poly Hotspring Guiyang Hotel.

May 30, Monday.  There was a little bit of traffic congestion during our uneventful trip to the KWE airport.  Things actually run quite smoothly in the city, perhaps the added security for the “Big Data 2016” conference was a factor.

Reflecting on my week’s experience (it’s been nine days), I must say it has been an overall positive experience.  We certainly passed by some poor locations, but abject poverty – at least in the areas we visited – was not evident.  It is amazing how much has been invested in the infrastructure.  Guizhou terrain is such that you can’t go far without long tunnels and bridges; and they are common.  The area of our hotel in Guiyang, called “Poly” for its developer, is only a few years old, yet many things are already crumbling, either due to shoddy workmanship or poor maintenance.  Let’s hope the infrastructure doesn’t suffer a similar fate.

 Building highways in Guizhou is not easy because of the hilly terrain.  There are long stretches of elevated roadways, often ,,,

 ... leading to tunnels.

Some bridges have very long spans.

The province has also put much funding into developing its tourist attractions, and is doing quite well by many measures.  I find it interesting in being upgraded from 4A (e.g., Forest of Ten Thousand Peals) to 5A (e.g., Huangguoshu Falls) what is needed are evidently grander visitor centers, more staff, and better entertainment.  I have no problem with those, and a 5A restroom is definitely a plus, but would think better explanation and more opportunities to “interact” would be more important.  I don’t need to visit a bonsai garden when I go to see the falls, but I would like to know more about the geology and the eco-systems of the area.  We didn’t see that many western tourists, and we were told out of the 1000 or so licensed guides, only 29 are qualified to conduct the tours in English.  Let me say the two we have met are barely passable (we spoke to the second one mostly in Chinese.)

Finally, some remarks on the people.  This is like an opera crowd: Anne and I are among the youngest.  We have a couple of expats who live in Hong Kong.  Actually they have lived in the city for decades.  What I find slightly puzzling (and disappointing) is their complete disinterest in learning about the language.  One of them is even married to a local Hong Kong woman.  Nonetheless, interacting with them was a pleasant experience.

Back to the trip.  We landed in SZX a bit before noon.  Anne and I took our time to have lunch.  Getting back to Hong Kong turned out to be more complicated than I thought.  We started our journey a bit before 2 pm.  It involved a bus ride of about 15 minutes to the metro station, an hour (yes, an hour) ride on the metro, 30 or so minutes to clear immigration on both sides, and then a 15 minute MTR ride to Tai Po, and a taxi ride to the Tai Po House.  With connection times, it was around 4:30 pm that we got in.

For dinner we took Minibus 23K to the MTR station.  After dinner at Tai Hing, we did some grocery shopping at Park and Shop and Wellcome.

Accommodations: Tai Po House (4 nights).

May 31 to June 2 (Tuesday to Thursday).  We had many meetings (social or otherwise) during the three days we were in Hong Kong.  The include:

• Yum cha with Al and Judy and their son Max at Fortune Metropolis in Hung Hom.  Al was the organizer of the trip, and we wanted to meet Max who is a Christian.
• Lunch with John and his wife Adeline at Korea Restaurant (27/F iSquare).  John was my high school classmate and heads up a charity in Hong Kong.  We knew Adeline from Cornell, although we all had problem recognizing one another at first.  We had not seen each other since graduation.
• Dinner with Tim and Whitney.  Alfred and Rachel also joined us.
• Breakfast with Vivien who works at a drug rehab center in China.
• Lunch with Edwin, a fellow Hope International supporter, at a Jordan MTR Japanese restaurant.
• Coffee with Nathan and Sharon at Coffee Academics in Wanchai; Nathan is looking to set up an event (A Cup of Hope?) there in August.  Edwin also joined us.
• Tea with Elaine and Larry at the Jockey Club, Tim and Whitney joined us for dinner.  Kenneth showed up at around 9 pm after work.
• Breakfast with Alfred at Festival Walk.
• Lunch with Nathan in Kwun Tong, after meeting with AOHK.
• Dinner in TST (a certain Macau Restaurant) with Don.

Coffee at Coffee Academics in Wan Chai.

Lunch with Edwin at Jordan MTR.  Work product in foreground.

 Dinner at Happy Valley Jockey Club.

Dinner with Alfred and Rachel in Causeway Bay.

June 3, Friday.  Mr. Tsang took us to the airport, and we had a packed but uneventful flight back to New Jersey.  It cost only about $25 for us to get back via Uber.