May 26th

The area near Xingyi, is much more affluent than that surrounding Anshun. The land is more flat, and the nearby city makes it easier for farmers to sell their goods.

So far, we have visited a market and Wangfenglin-the forest of 10,000 peaks. {It's called that because you could see the peaks of many karst mountains}.

I also had a variety of fruit this morning- including yellow plums, and a pear type of fruit. I was warned that you are not to drink water a half hour after eating the small yellow plums. I didn't drink water, but I popped an immodium just in case.

We also drove through a Bouyi village. The tour sang a raunchy song about the Bouyi people who don't believe in marriage.

I'm trying to write everything down before I forget but the bumpy mountain roads are making it difficult. I'll try again later. next is a boat ride.

8:30 pm

The LongYu Hotel.
The boat ride consisted of lunch while sailing around Wangfenglin lake. It is an artificial lake surrounded by beautiful karst landscape. It is one of the 5 biggest freshwater lakes in China.

In the "forest of 10,000 peaks" surrounding the lake (Wangfenglin) I could see caves where it looked like dragons could reside.







After the lake tour, we traveled to a museum about "minority" wedding rituals. It was interesting although I couldn't read the information. {Jenny's mom tried to give me a synopsis while listening to the tour guide, thank goodness!}. The building it was in used to be a govenor's mansion. Jenny's mom said that it was built in 1969, but the building looked much older than that. Some of the wedding rituals included arranging sticks, leaves and pine needles in different ways on rice to show the boy whether he is accepted/rejected/thought of as only a friend etc. {Ah if things could only be put so clearly!}

Then we came back to the hotel for a full body massage {gasp!}. When they say "full body" they mean it--eyes, nose, ears, butt, inner thigh, ALL the pressure points... I won't go into to much detail but not much was left unscarred. My butt in particular has never gotten so much attention.

I'm tired. Tomorrow it sounds like we will be doing the waterfall.