10/17/07-Yangshuo/Guilin/Hangzhou
After breakfast, we hit the street on a specific quest: buy underpants for Dave. It seems that he miscounted and came up 6 pairs short. There are no department store in Yangshuo, so we needed to head for the pedestrian-only street to do some buying. Before going out, our local guide was kind enough to write on a paper napkin the Chinese name for underwear. After 5 minutes of dodging the street vendors, we found the shopping street and, soon thereafter, a small store that specialized in sporting goods. Dave flashed the napkin to a pleasant young salesgirl who said quite clearly in English “Oh, Men's Underwear”. She led him to the back of the store and proceeded to display the under ware stock which was all Calvin Klein made in the USA. Dave needed a XXL size that the girl assured us would fit nicely. After short, aggressive negotiation, we bought 4 pairs and took her picture. Five stores later, we encountered a similar store and found out that we had struck a good deal but they could do a little better so we bought 2 more pair. After that we walked through the shopping area encountering friends from the tour group and buying more souvenirs. The next day, Dave discovered that the underwear has no “fly” which means, well ......you know what that means. Shopping pictures are Yangshou Shopping.
Then it was back to the hotel for lunch, checking out and being bussed back to Guilen. Once in the city, we went directly to a park (Solitary Beauty Peak) in which there is a hill with a peak that offers stunning views of the city. Along the side of the hill are sayings carved that are very famous. Some of them were obliterated by the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution. The park is also adjacent to a college that was noted for its art department. We strolled around the campus and spent some time in a store that was selling works of some of the students.
Later, we left the park and drove to the airport for our flight to Hangzhou. To reach the plane we were bussed onto the tarmac and actually boarded it in the rear under a jet engine. That was different.
We arrived safely in Hangzhou (3.5 Million people) and were bussed immediately to a restaurant for dinner (delicious, as usual). And, then, on to our hotel which was very nice.
