Day 5, Oct. 6, 2017. Waterfalls Day.

Friday, October 06, 2017

Today was an early start as we needed to be ready to go at 8 a.m.  We loaded the bus and headed up to the National Park that has the tallest and also the widest waterfalls in Asia.  It was a fairly easy walk to the first waterfall that was the widest in Asia. It was gorgeous.  The crowds were starting to get heavy, so we moved on to catch a bus to get to the next waterfall.

Longest waterfall in China.  They have a national park dedicated to these beautiful waterfalls.

This is my favorite picture of it. 

After the bus dropped us off, we walked down to a village full of vendors.  The rest of the group was going to go on a hike that would last two hours.  I knew my knee would not hold up and two other women were not anxious to take that hike on either, so we stayed behind after walking part way with them.  We tried to go see a few things in that area, but it really wasn’t much else to see unless we got caught in a great crowd that would have been too much for us.  We bought some ice cream and some oranges and sat under a tree on a bench most of the two hours that we waited.  Some people said, “Hello” and other took pictures. 

Shortly before the rest of our group got back, two young men came up to David and started talking to him.  They were both teachers in a middle school in a province in the south of China.  They had pretty good English skills and one wants to travel the US and parts of Europe, Spain and Great Britain specifically.  They walked with us most of the way up the hill until we had to hurry up to catch up with our group to get on the bus.

David talking with the two young teachers from Southern China.  They were also here with another tour group for the National Holiday.

One of the bus drivers was so thrilled to have a group of Americans on his bus that he had to get a video of us before he would drive off.  We sang Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree for everyone and they clapped for us.

After lunch, we went on the hike to the tallest waterfall in Asia.  We walked through an area called a "potted forest" because it was a Bonsai Forest.  It would have been nice to take some time and look at more of the bonsai and even get some pictures, but our goal was to get to the waterfall.  It was hard working through the crowd to stay together and get to where we needed to be, but it was worth the effort. 

Our first view of the Huangguoshu Waterfall.  It is 81 meters in width.

Very hot and muggy here.  We almost didn't want to hold hands because it was such high humidity.

This is my favorite photo of this waterfall.  It was amazing.  Now I need to go to Niagara Falls and be amazed by it!

This might give you a small idea of the crowds we had to shoulder through (gently, of course).  

We walked back along the river and we were very happy that we wouldn’t have to climb all the way back up because they have an escalator the takes you back to up almost the top (about 80 meters up).  We were hot and tired and went through all the vendors to get to the bus and endure the three hour ride back to Guiyang where we are spent the night.  

We were all amazed at this beautiful chandelier that was in the lobby of the hotel we stayed at the night before.