Genuine Beauty

Today, let's discuss the city of Zhenyuan. If you are like me and unable to pronounce Chinese words, it is pronounced "Genuine" (thus the title...yay for puns.) Anyways, this was quite an enjoyable city. The city itself was smallish and quant. It reminded me of a mountain town with cobble stone roads and cute signs on the stores, etc. At night, there were lanterns and lights along the river that lit up. It was very beautiful. Near the city, we took a lovely boat ride on a big river through gorgeous canyons. It reminded me of an Asian/green version of Lake Powell. (If that makes sense at all...) I guess I should just show you.

The city itself was quite beautiful. It had a river running through it, with turquoise waters (a rare sight in China...) Here are some pictures of the city in daylight, and also at night when all of the lights were at their finest.

Here is the view from our hotel room. Beautiful!! But also cold...aka the heat didn't work. Aka the sleep was quite fun. Aka: woot! Just thought you might be interested in that fun fact. If not, sorry. Ok. I'm done now.

Yay! A tree AND a bridge. My fav.

There were happy little lanterns hanging off all the buildings!! (I thought I would point out the obvious, in case you were thrown by the glowing, red dots.)

The happy little lanterns in the dark. Purty sweet.

 

Happy, glowing bridge. Everything is so happy in Zhenyuan.



 Near the city, we took a boat out on the river. It was so pretty! It was a chilly boat ride, but totally worth it. The waters were turquoise, and the canyons were green and rocky. Love it.

Here is my favorite crew member of the boat. We called him "El Capitan." The crew insisted that we salute him. We became great friends along our journey. Ok. None of that happened. But, isn't he cute?!

Here are our friends that traveled with us in Anshun, Zhenyuan and Kaili. (From left to right: Tennk, Luna, David.) I love these guys!

One of my favorite pictures in Zhenyuan.

Look. I'm on a boat.

A waterfall!! (Almost as impressive as the ones in Anshun...)

Aww. How cute.

My special friend...

 

While we were on the river, we noticed a couple buildings high up on the rocky wall. We asked El Capitan about it and discovered that there was a little, remote village located on top of the hill. The only way to get to the village is by boat. David, Luna and Tennk kept asking the crew if we could go see the place. After much persuasion, they finally let us go! They told us that we might be the first foreigners to visit. I'm not sure if this is true, but I am choosing to believe that it was. Here are a couple pictures of the village!

We had to climb a bunch of steps to get to the village. Totally worth it!

They had some rice patties. Yum.

They had a miniature hot spring too!

Some of the houses

A door. I like those.

The gate to the village!

Well, that is a very summed up version of Zhenyuan/its surroundings. I hope you enjoyed it!
The end.