Friday, January 11, 2008

China-Guilin (1986)

OK, you guess it..... these are old photos from my past travels photo album. I was afraid to post it at first cause they looked so faded and old but trotter encouraged me...hehehe.

Between 1949 and 1974, the People's Republic was closed to all but selected foreign visitors. Beginning in the late 1970s, when the leadership decided to promote tourism vigorously as a means of earning foreign exchange, China quickly developed its own tourist industry. (Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_China)

So Singapore allowed only those above 35 years of age to travel to China in the 70s but then China relaxed their rules in mid 80s and open to all tourists regardless of age. Yayyy, so I was fortunate to visit China in 1986 with my late mother and all my siblings.

It really was an eye opening for me. When I first stepped into China in 1986, it was like stepping into a time machine that transported us back to the olden times. The people wore clothes that looked so different from us and everything is so backward. Their salary were so low back then. I remembered the tour guide in china earned only S$50 per month (which is considered very good salary for tour guide).

The above is a bird eye view of Guilin from a hilltop.

Guilin is famous for their odd shaped hills. The above hill looked like an elephant trunk and so was called elephant trunk hill.




We took a long boat to view the beautiful scenery of Guilin along Lijiang River. I remembered we had a sumptous seafood lunch on the boat. They simply caught the seafood fresh from the river and cooked them onboard the boat. Very interesting.






The below are postcard photos showing the inside of Ludi (Reed-Flute) Cave.


This rock formation looked like a lion.


8 comments:

GMG said...

Great job Alice! Guilin is on my list for next trips, together with Xian and Shanghai! It looks great, even if faded... ;)
I can imagine your feelings; they musthave been similar to my first trip in the USSR in 1977...
Have a great weekend!

Dave said...

It is amazing how many civilizations are so far back in time. This is also the case in some of the jungles of South America.

alicesg said...

Thanks for both your comments. Trotter, you have a nice trip and I am sure you will take nice photos to share with all fellow bloggers. :)

david mcmahon said...

I'd love to go to China with my camera. I was in Singapore last month and you'll see a lot of familiar shots on my blog over the past three weeks!

Squirrel said...

since I love the mountains, I love these pictures--your mountains are more romantic too--and your caves are lovely as well.

CC said...

I love your photos..I can travel with you through your pictures..
Cizzie..aka CC in Texas

Anonymous said...

looks like it was an amazing trip, nice pictures!

Tom said...

What a great series of pictures, and such beauty to capture.