Following in foot steps

This morning our cousin picked us up from our hotel in Shenzhen to have Dim-Sum at a 5-star hotel. The quality of the traditional Cantonese Dim-Sum was excellent, with each portion about double the size of typical dim-sum at Chinese Restaurants in LA or SF. Needless to say, as is customary for Chinese here, she ordered way too many dishes for us to finish....Having had more than a hearty breakfast, we headed for Guangzhou from Shenzhen, a two hour drive to Guangzhou Airport. You can see from the photos that I will attach, Shenzhen is a government planned economic development zone that is a showcase of China's economic prowness. You will see wide wide boulevards with mega high rise building on both sides of the major throughfares. Very impressive, if not much to see for tourists...Along the major expressway to Guanzhou, a stretch of about 80 miles that is lined with factories, warehouses, shopping centers and high rise apartments. This Pearl River Delta is the centerpiece of China's manufacturing zone where everything from toys, to furniture to every thing Made-in-China comes from...

We flew from Guangzhou to Guilin, a 1 hour flight that transformes the scenary from frentic traffic and high rise to a slower pace of a typical mid-size Chinese city. We went from Guilin Airport to the city railway station, where we had to queue up with hundreds of locals to buy a train ticket for our trip to Heng Yang, Hunan, where we will meet up with several of my dad's relatives. After successfully getting our train tickets, we headed off to Yangshuo. We arrived around 7:30PM and proceeded to our hotel right at the heart of the bustling West Street in Downtown Yangshuo. This is mega touristy street with hundreds of shops, kiosks stocked with mostly kitsch paraphanalias that one can easily pick up from every other touristy traps in China. West Street is ok to just wander around, but not to buy, in my opinion!

Dad and I had the famous Guilin Mee Hon (rice Noodles). It was a tasty, if quite spicy hot, soup noodle consists of an aromatic broth with slices of pork and pickled cabbage a