A typical feature of many tours of China is a three day cruise down the Yangtze River, but Imperial Tours does tours differently. Although there is some spectacular scenery along that cruise, they reason that three days is too long to be stuck on a boat instead of actually exploring one of the most intriguing and diverse countries in the world. So instead, they planned a scenic cruise on a bamboo raft down the Li River near Guilin.
Claire and I had our own raft and sat on a bamboo bench while our boat was being "poled" down the river. The mountain peaks were gorgeous (see my photograph above), and I happily watched the scenery drift by as we slowly made our way downstream. At the end of our river cruise, we enjoyed an experience that tourists on the big river boats never get to see - a visit to the home village of our guide, seeing her family home where they made tofu, and having an open and free-ranging conversation with the Party Secretary of the local Communist Party that ran the village.
Sometimes less is more, and our short rafting trip was the perfect amount of time to spend on a scenic cruise in China.
bamboo raft down the Li River (search here on Google)
copyright (c) 2011 by David Ourisman LLC. All rights reserved. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.
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