Photo For the Week: China

Bren over at Ryan Photography blog has a ‘Photo For the Week’ challenge and the topic for this week is China.

Here is my photo of the Li River taken on an early morning  cruise from Guilin to Yangshuo.

Wishing you all a splendid weekend.

Travel Theme: Guilin’s Scenic Peaks

Alisa’s Travel Theme this week is ‘Peaks’. An old Chinese saying states that “Guilin’s mountain and water scenery is the best under Heaven.” I’m sure this is correct, as the most picturesque and amazing peaks I have seen, are those along the Li River from Guilin to Yangshuo.

A leisurely cruise along the Li River will afford you a wonderful view of Guilin’s famous natural karst formations.

In the early morning light, these mountains which rise straight up from an otherwise flat landscape, looked quite ghostly.

The limestone karsts looming large, make for a dramatic backdrop to the charming scenes of village houses which stand right along the water’s edge.

Guilin is situated on what was once an ancient ocean floor, and the limestone peaks are made up of shells and also the skeletons of long extinct marine animals which lived millions of years ago. This is their final resting place, beneath the greenery of the towering peaks.

As you can see, they are all shapes and sizes, and the scenic views look just like an artist’s masterpiece.

It’s a most beautiful and fascinating landscape, and as you may imagine, there are many myths and legends woven around these iconic peaks.

If you want to learn more about the history of how these peaks came into being, just click this link.

To join in the challenge and to see more entries for Ailsa’s Travel Theme, click the badge below.

 

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WPC Landscape: Some travel memories and present day landscapes

For this weeks Photo Challenge, Cheri asks us to share a photo of a landscape. Like many of you who have travelled extensively, I found it difficult to choose just one landscape out of the many hundreds which I’ve seen and photographed.

I could show you the view over The Valley of a Thousand Hills taken from my late mom and dad’s favourite open air restaurant in Kloof South Africa. We’ve enjoyed so many joyous family occasions whilst looking out over this undulating landscape.

Our daughter lived for a few years in Vancouver and on one visit, we took a drive to the Whistler Ski Resort, going up to the top on one of the ski lifts. I’ve never been so cold in my whole life, with the icy wind whistling past my frozen ears, as we surveyed this unforgettable landscape.

Cruising down the Li River from Guilin to Yangshuo, yielded some really picturesque and breathtaking, karst landscapes.

Many years ago, an early morning stop on one of our many US road trips, enabled us to gaze out over the spectacular and awe-inspiring Grand Canyon. I’m sure we’ll do this trip again one day and get some better photos.

We never dreamed in those far off days, that one day we’d actually be living here in the USA and looking out regularly on this beautiful landscape from our favourite ‘watering hole’.

Neither did we imagine that we would have this lovely peaceful view from our house. Life can be so surprising.

Of course, my home’s inside landscape is somewhat different, but hubby’s doing a great job with those ceiling beams. Don’t know how he manages to get them up there all by himself, but I’m not complaining.

He tells me that he’s planning a domed ceiling with a chandelier over my piano. That I can’t wait to see. I do miss having a piano, but for now I just have to be patient.

Hope you’re all having a great Tuesday. This evening we’re going to a stage production put on by some of our club members. Should be a lot of fun, but I’d rather watch than be part of the cast.

To see more interpretations of the WPC or to take part, visit here.