On to Yangshuo

After leaving Ping An we drove back to another of Keren’s establishments where we had stayed before going on to Ping An.  He calls it his “B and B” but it is actually a beautiful apartment in a gated community in Guilin, which he rents out to travelers.  I will post a couple of pictures of it—beautifully decorated with more of Keren’s gorgeous photographs and collection of art and wood carvings—Keren does all the design and decorating for the B and B and also the Lian Lodge.   He is truly a Renaissance man.

We had left a bunch of our stuff at the B and B before going on to Ping An so that the village ladies would have a lighter load to carry up the mountainside, and thus we had to return to re-pack before proceeding on to Yangshuo.  We also had to pick up the artwork we had purchased in Guilin before our stay in Ping An.  I had told Keren I’d like to buy a painting if we could find one we liked and also reasonably priced, and so he took us to a wholesale art district where he knew all the artists.  Tom and I bought a beautiful painting of a Yi woman (I’ll post a picture of it) and then--in a different studio from a different artist who was not there--we also bought a very cool, somewhat primitive, painting of some old men, which was only $30.   I asked Keren if he liked it and he said it needed some Chinese writing on it to fill in some of the blank space.  He said that the first artist who did the Yi woman would be happy do that, and when Keren asked him to he said that he would and that he would put his signature red mark on it as well!  I’m not sure how legal that would be in the states.  And when I asked Keren what he wrote on the painting, he said it was something about old men kibbutzing in the park.  I will lie and tell people the writing is a famous Confuscian saying about growing old gracefully.

Then we went into another studio and couldn’t resist three long, very intricate, paintings of the only female Buddha and her male counterpart.  The paintings are done on what looks like parchment paper and are beautifully detailed.  We have absolutely no place in our home or in the Colorado house to put these paintings but we had to have them anyway.  The artist, whose picture I will post, is evidently quite famous, and he too signed his work and did some extra Chinese writing along the edges of the works.  I would have thought they were mass produced at the price we paid, but Keren assured me that not only was the artist legitimate but rather well known to boot!   In case you’re wondering, Keren is completely trustworthy on that score.  He (the artist) gave us some written information about him with his picture receiving some sort of award, but of course it is all in Chinese.  I can’t even tell you his name because Keren can’t say it in English!  Oh well, I have his picture…

We are on our way to Yangshuo, our last stop before returning to Shanghai and then home.   I can’t believe we’ve been here almost three weeks.  Still ahead, is Yangshuo and the beautiful Li River where we visited before in 2007.  We’ve had incredible weather, with only a couple of major rains and both on days when we were traveling anyway.  But yesterday as I mentioned, it began raining in Ping An and today it has rained steadily all day long.  On the ride from Ping An to Guilin, the river we followed was raging and much of the road was almost flooded.  Being mountainous, it is a winding road and we have joked that the Chinese national pastime is passing on a curve.  Especially fun is passing three or four large trucks and trying to squeeze between two of them in order to avoid a head-on collision with an oncoming bus or a large truck full of squealing pigs.   But this particular driver is careful and not as reckless as a few of the others we have had.  Enough for now…