A great last day in China with spectacular views

The sun decided to make an appearance during our last day in China, and it came out at exactly the right time as some of the photos below will show.

We decided to take a Didi taxi all the way to the ancient village of Xingping. There, we learned that the tour boats were allowed back on the water, but by this time we had already decided that the really good views weren't from the water at all.

We wandered around town a bit at the start...

The main street is supposed to have a lot of ancient buildings, but all we saw were tourist shops.

The tourist boats are back on the river.

Lots of people enjoying the views.

This is the view they came here for...

China's 20 yuan note has the famous view taken from the river at Xingping.

The only problem is that you have to be actually on the river to get the most similar view.

So this is the best I could do.

It sure is a scenic area. Hey, there's a little bit of blue sky up there!

Ruth wanted to climb Laozhai Hill. The 1,149 stone steps take you up about 300 meters (1,000' or so to some of the most spectacular views in the area. But the temperature was 36C (97F) and so I wasn't feeling that ambitious. But I agreed, and I'm glad I did. As we climbed up, the clouds were disappearing, and by the time we made it to the top, the sun was shining!

They actually closed the trail in 2017, but did some repairs to re-open it and never took the signs down. The translation is quite funny.

This is only about a quarter of the way up.

They are actually really rough steps. It was quite a climb.

Almost at the top.

A steep steel ladder to climb as well.

Made it to the top!

Wow.

I'm amazed that someone actually carried all the materials up those steps to build this.

Spectacular views.

Climbing back down.

The harbor was busy with boats.

And that's it for China! Three weeks went by quickly, didn't it? I hope you learned a lot... we sure did. Today, we take the train to Hong Kong where we have three nights, and then on Tuesday we fly to Japan for eight nights.

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