Photo of the Day (October 23, 2006)

Following on my post about the Li River, near Yangshuo, China, here’s a shot I took from the kayak. The rain had just finished, but we could hear thunder in the distance. The river was moving swiftly, carrying us past this “commuter.”

Kayaking the Li

You’ve all seen those Chinese watercolor paintings that hang in every Chinese restaurant and shop, that show the limestone karsts rising above a tranquil river. Typically, there’s a person on a bamboo raft, with a conical hat, on that painted river. Well, that Shangri-La actually exists. And it’s called the Li River.

The Li stretches between Yangshuo and Guilin, in the interior of China, in the Guangxi province.

The best place to experience the Li is starting from the village of Yangshuo (pop. over 300,000–i.e., a mere village in China), nestled in the tree-covered hills and karsts surrounding the river. It’s an hour or so from nearby Guilin (a small “town” of over 1.3 million). Now, be sure to get on the right bus to Guilin–unlike we did–because you could end up some 300 miles to the south, in Yulin, due to a slight pronunciation error. But that’s another story…

In Yangshuo, we stayed in a hotel called the Bamboo House. A double room with a view, A/C, a TV, DVD player and dozens of bootleg DVDs (why?) was only about $14 USD.

You can arrange to rent kayaks from the folks at the hotel. Early morning, they drove us deep into the country and let us off at the river’s edge with a couple of cheap kayaks and very vague directions on where we’d meet our pick-up later that day. We had the river to ourselves.

It was beautiful: white birds flew over the calm water. Water buffalo waded in to watch us pass. Storm clouds passed the nearby mountains. Occasionally, a fisherman on a skiff would pass by. There, we had the only peace and quiet we experienced anywhere in China. Just like in the watercolor paintings.

Fresh Fruits and the Nude Beach of Sauvie Island, Oregon

Portland, Oregon, is home to some wonderful sights and is a terrific, vibrant town nestled in some of the best scenery in the country. But, however picturesque the city is, you might still need to “get away from it all.” One of the best places to go is a small alluvial island near the convergence of the Columbia and Willamette (pronounced will-A-mit, sounds like “dammit”) rivers, called Sauvie Island.

It’s actually minutes from the center of town, but it’s worlds away. Here, the lovable hippie-grunginess of the Pacific Northwest meets the quaintness of Tuscany and the vistas of Switzerland. You can find ‘u-pick’ farms growing vegetables and flowers, along with dairy cows, horses, and a big wildlife preserve. There are camping locations, nature trails and beaches.

Right now is the time to head there to grab your late-summer-harvest fresh foods. Make sure to try the different berries indigenous to this region, such as the marionberry, which even grow wild on the roadsides. If you are not afraid of starches, test your orientation skills in the Corn Maize, an annual maze cut through a farmer’s field. A tip for runners or cyclists: the paved portion of the island is a scenic 12-mile loop of good, flat pavement.

The best time to go is early morning, when the quiet little rural island is still waking up. Clear days offer gorgeous views of both Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Hood and very little traffic. It’s common legend that it has Portland’s only nude beach; but this, I can neither confirm or deny. I can confirm, however, as a former resident, that the legendary Pacific Northwest “Pillsbury-doughboy tan” can be spotted here, in the wild.