As we had such a fun time in Yangshuo in 2008, we made plans to go again this year for Thanksgiving. This time we had four other families traveling with us. The families were the Humes: Mary, John, Kelly (9), Erin (7); the Jenkins: Jennifer, Scott, Sean (9), Sophie (7); the Bishops: Faith, Dan, Avery (9), Riley (7) and the Kellermans: Michelle, Jim, Emma (9), Grace (7), James (4) for a total of ten adults and eleven children. It took a bit to organizing the group before the trip, but it was worth the effort as the trip was a blast.

We left Shanghai at 8:20am. Our flight left on time this year as we planned to visit the rice terraces known as Longji Titian (Dragon Backbone Terraces) in Longsheng. Last year, we were delayed in Shanghai and arrived too late for the road trip. This time with the China airline gods were with us. We made it and piled all 21 of us in our bus for the drive. It was about 2.5 hours to Longshen from the airport. The kids took the back of the bus to play ds, ipods and other games in their backpacks. The Dads had the bus pullover at the first roadside shop for beer. After spending all of 41rmb ($6), they came back to the bus with 10 extra large beers, water and firecrackers. The firecrackers were an impulse buy!!

When we arrived at the rice terraces to begin our walk, there were men available to carry you up the mountain in a “chair”. Elle thought that it looked really fun. She declared she couldn’t possible make it all the way to the top and began to walk slowly. We got a chair for Elle and James so they could enjoy the ride (and we did not have to hear the complaining). It cost 150rmb ($22) to carry the two of them to the top and back. James did not enjoy the ride as much as Elle. Elle rode down on her own…she likes being the princess!!

James and The Rice Princess

The kids enjoyed climbing to the top, as it wasn’t that hard. They all go to Concordia and climb the four flights of stairs to their classrooms with their school bags…they are conditioned for stairs. The view from the top was beautiful.

After an ice cream break for the kids, we began the stair climb down. It was after 4:00pm before we reached the bottom. We decided to pass on eating a late lunch, as we had pre-ordered food at the hotel. We piled back into our bus for the trip to the hotel snacking on all the pretzels, protein bars and others “goodies” we all brought with us from Shanghai.

We were staying at the Mountain Retreat this year on the YuLong River. The Retreat is owned by Jim’s friend, Chris. With so many children, they need the room to run. The Retreat has open grass areas along with the river for many hours of enjoyment.

The Mountain Retreat

The view from the Retreat

We arrived around 6:30pm with a hungry crew. We dumped our bags and enjoyed a good meal. After dinner, Elle was tired so she and I went upstairs to go to bed. We did begin our day at 5:30 am!! Upon discovering the three beds in a row, she found new energy as she jumped from bed to bed. She was showing me the “log roll” and the “pencil roll” she learned at gymnastics. The weather was much warmer than in the past year so the other children ran around outside until 10:00pm.

The next day we began the day with a very relaxing breakfast. It was warmer enough to eat outside. The children played down by the river, as at night they were not allowed to go down to the river. Before breakfast was over, Emmy and Riley were the first to get muddy. Our first adventure of the day was to go for a bike ride. The older kids found smaller bikes to pedal. The seven-year-old group got tandem bikes with their dads. Elle and James were given the Chinese basket lashed to the back of a Dads bike. As in the past, no helmets and no safety straps on the basket. We pedaled through the countryside until we were stopped by the river. The people directed us to rafts that will take you to the other side for a fee. Jim and Elle went scouting and came back with the local crossing route to the other side. The children walked their bikes across the dam of a rice patty. At one point, we were causing a traffic jam for the locals. We let them cross ahead of us as they smiled at us using their “secret” road.

Bridge one: The rice dam “bridge” crossing

Bridge two: The wooden board “bridge” crossing

We enjoyed about a two-hour ride for the day. At one point, Jim hit some gravel and crashed with Elle – she was fine and not scared. Once they got going again, Elle was asked Jim to go faster. She was enjoying her princess bike ride from her basket! Of course, we had to buy the flower headpiece for 5rmb ($0.70).

The Bike Princess

We got back to the Mountain Retreat for a quick lunch as we had a 1:00pm reservation for our next adventure…bamboo rafting. We had ten bamboo rafts as each raft holds two people. The children paired off for their rafts. The water is only knee deep and all the kids could swim but Elle and James – they went with parents. The Dads bought beer for their floating adventure.

Dads with Beer

Half way down the river, a woman was selling more beer from her “floating shop”. Of course, the Dads had to stop for another purchase!

Shop for beer

Sean and Emmy coming down the water

The kids were having fun gathering seed weed to throw at each other along with splashing. No one went in the river THIS time (see November 2008). Elle was “raft surfing” with Jim with her new flower headpiece.

The River Princess

After another beautiful day enjoying the river and the spectacular mountains, we were dropped off at our hotel around 3:30pm. Our rafting adventure cost us 324rmb ($48) per family including our vans to take us to the starting point. It was just enough time to wash children before our Thanksgiving dinner. We are pre-ordered Thanksgiving dinner for Friday. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, beans, stuffing, cranberry and pumpkin cheesecake. As this is China, our expectations were low and we were pleasantly surprised with a fabulous meal – and we never knew they had big turkeys in China. After dinner, the kids raced outside to play. They had all gathered big bamboo sticks…they were “the Stick Gang”. Each evening, the kids hid their bamboo sticks in the bushes for the night to collect them the next day for more play. At 10:00pm, we send our children to bed to be respectful of the other guests. Luckily, most of the guests have children. Most of the other children are eyeing our gang of 11 trying to figure out how they can be part of the “gang”.

Saturday the ladies had made plans to go West Street, the only shopping street in town. The boys took the kids for a hike in the countryside and nearby villages close by our hotel. The kids found their sticks in the bushes for this adventure – they were just waiting for a real reason to use those sticks.

The “gang of trouble”: Avery, Emma, Emmy, Sean, Sophie, Elle, Kelly, Erin, Grace, James & Riley

The ladies left at 10:30 with plans to meet at our next adventure check-in point at 12:30pm. It didn’t leave us much time to shop, so we power shopped. We grabbed a nice, quick pizza lunch and beat the boys and children to the meeting spot, whew!! Our next adventure of the weekend was China Climb. Concordia School sends children to China Climb for field trips. I booked it with unknown expectations. China Climb said they could take children as young as 3. Elle was on the fence but tried the climbing wall the the shop – then she said “no” when she saw the rock wall. We had a crew of 14 climbers, 7 adults and 7 children. The China Climb crew was waiting for us with gear and three ropes/routes available for climbing.

The rock wall

After getting geared up and listening to the instructions, our children were ready to go.

All geared up, all thumbs up!

Like Daughter, like Father!

The first three to climb were Kelly (9), Emmy & Riley (7). Riley was not going to climb because she is afraid of heights. She was the first one to the top with the biggest smile when she got down. The three routes up the rock were all different in ability. All the older children attacked the hardest climb. They all tried so hard to get to the top, but could not get around one section of the rock. All the children climbed three times during our 4-hour session. Jim climbed four times and I climbed twice.

Brenda on the wall

Emersyn on the hardest climb

Jim helping Emmy

Elle, Sophie and Erin played at the base of the mountain. Sophie gave it a go, and as the smallest climber they gave her a special harness. But she had missed the instructions on coming down once you reach the top. She got to the top and didn’t know what to do…she was done and not wanting to try again!!

Our little non–climber playing in the field

All the adults had sore necks from looking up at our climbing children, not from climbing. A message at the Dragon Fly is much needed!! China Climb cost us 300rmb ($44) per person for four hours.

The gang of ChinaClimbers: Sophie, Avery, Jennifer, Riley, Mary, Erin, Kelly, Emmy, Sean, Elle, Dan, Scott, John, Brenda & Jim

We left China Climb late as we had dinner reservations at 5:00pm at Luna’s. Luna’s is at the Village Guesthouse, the place we stayed last year. Again, I had pre-order dinner for the crew as the Bishops and the Kellermans were going to the light/water show. The other three families had seen it last year. Dinner was delicious as Luna’s specialty is Italian. The kids enjoyed their pasta. After dinner, the children climbed in the trees in the courtyard and set off the firecrackers purchased on day one. Later, the other three families went back to the Mountain Retreat to enjoy wine, chocolate and the fireplace. We had amazingly warm weather as the week before it had been colder, so the children played outside until bed time. The children all got along very well. Elle and James, as the youngest, played along with no issues with the gang of 9 year olds and 7 year olds.

We left the Mountain Retreat at 9:00 for the bus ride to Guilin to the airport for our 10:20am flight. However, this is China and the airline gods were not with us – our flight was delayed. We sat and sat and sat. The Guilin airport was a typical small airport with no restaurant or anything of substance to eat. But, they did have a “High Quality Goods Confluence shop”

Finally, we fed our children noodles – the kind you never buy because they are loaded with more MSG than you want to know. However, we had no idea as it was all in Chinese. There was a special hot water filter to fill the noodle bowl. Scott mastered the hot water and become in charge of everyone’s bowls. Our flight finally left around 3:00pm. The kids all did great with our airport sitting time…as did the Dads.

Dan & Jim – under the” influence of confluence”

We arrived home around 6:30 to eat some real food as everyone was starving. We ordered our Sunday dinner from the alley. The girls enjoyed a nice long bath with hot chocolate while Jim and I unpacked our dirty clothes. Another fun adventure weekend.