YANGSHUO Cont'd 26 Oct.

Water buffalo, Yangshuo countryside

Rice

Countryside buggy and passengers

Typical farmhouse

Grinding soybeans to make tofu

Karsts lit for Yangshuo evening show, water stage in foreground

Yangshuo extravaganza

Six of us decided to take an optional tour out into the countryside to learn how rice is grown, and to see a farmer's home and garden.  The villages were dusty and poor, with houses of  mud brick, and water buffalo assisting with the plowing, fertilizing and tilling of the soil.  We saw sugar cane, sweet potato, peanuts, water chestnuts, persimmons, pomelos, kumquats, as well as rice, corn, and green vegetables growing in the small garden plots.  There are fewer and fewer rice fields around here because development has claimed much of the farmland.  In fact Bryant and I were dumbfounded when we saw what 8 years of development have done to Yangshuo.

After dinner we went to a show that defies description - concieved and directed by the Chinese fellow who was responsible for the 2008 Olympic Opening Ceremonies in Beijing.  The outdoor theatre with 3000 seats was built on the shore of the river in a natural karst amphitheatre.  The water/stage was larger than the audience space, and accommodated many rafts like those that the cormorant fishermen use, as well as powered set pieces such as a crescent moon.  The most magical moment came when the surrounding karsts, hundreds of feet high at the edge of the river, were lit from their bases, and became a natural set for the show.  It was simply amazing, with a cast of hundreds of young people who sang, danced, and paddled.