Guilin is a little village in the South of China, I flew in from a warm and sunny Xi'an, expecting nice weather - I mean, I was heading South, right. Nope. Big mistake. It was cold and it was rainy. Bah. The area around Guilin rather famous, there are some amazing rice paddies, you have the Li River and stunning hills and mountains (see photo). Guilin itself is a nice place; wealthier than other places in China, more relaxed and some nice scenery. Spring was starting, so there were flower as well as trees starting to bloom. Spring, is unfortunately, also the rainy season... nobody told me :(
You can take half-day river cruises from Guilin to Yangshuo, the scenery is stunning - at least it must be, when it is not cloudy and misty - because I didn't get to see so much of it. Still, I was in luck, no rain! Yangshuo is a very touristy little place, it seems to be the must-see destination of every tour group in the world - Chinese or otherwise - in fact so popular that some tour leaders have decided to start a business and stay there. 
In fact, one of them started a cooking school! So, after Thai cooking, I can now also add some Chinese meals to my cooking skills. I forgot most of the meals already, to be honest, but that's not so important. It was a lot of fun. Plus, I did learn how to use a wok properly; there is a step-by-step process for that, you know! For a far better description of the cooking course that I could give, check out this link for step-by-step illustrated cooking lessons.PS in Vegas right now, do people actually like this place?, arrived in San Francisco about a week ago. Looking -without success- for a PC with USB port to upload my photos, haven't found one yet :/
