Farewell to Yangshuo

This tea plantation in Guangxi Province is the last stop on our trail of tea in the Orient. Here, high in the limestone karst mountains above the River Li, only the tenderest new leaves are plucked from the camellias to produce oolong tea – both black and green.
The scenic tea plantations also provide an excellent backdrop for the wedding photographers and their entourage of dressers, make-up artists and lighting crews. It takes at least half a dozen professionals to take every wedding photograph in China...

These are our final few days on the banks of the Yulong River surrounded by a fascinating landscape of karst mountains and by our adopted Chinese family. But, as much as we have adopted them – they have adopted us. These are our adopted 'daughters' Suzy and Amy, the receptionist and manager of the Tea Cozy Hotel...

We gave Suzy her anglicized name a few years ago and it stuck. So now we are officially considered relatives and their children call us Uncle and Auntie.

Although we are now beginning our journey home via Guangzhou and Hong Kong we will miss our Chinese 'family'. We will also the miss the fabulous views of the river and the mountains from our balcony at the Tea Cozy...

Our week here is at an end, but before we leave we must take you on a tour of the new Tea Cozy Resort in a nearby village. James's newly trained staff are hard at work preparing the boutique resort for their first guests and this is Lulu, Annie and Anna getting to grips with a fancy Italian cappuccino machine...

Our friend Curry and his business partners have taken 'boutique' to a higher level at their new resort hotel. Each room features enormous beds, the very latest Japanese style toilets, and many of them have round wooden ofuro soaking tubs – being modelled here by Amy...

The entire resort is nestled into the foot of a mountain within an ancient village, and it is housed within a number of refurbished village homes together with some authentically designed new buildings.
No expense has been spared in the creation of this resort hotel, from the handmade furniture to the enormous swimming pool and the beautifully landscaped gardens with fishponds and a giant waterfall...

This is Curry treating us to the delights of hotpot style dragon fish – absolutely delicious...

Our next stop is the bustling modern city of Guanzhou, but we cannot leave before we have taken a final look at the beautiful River Li landscape and the mountains of Guangxi...

Now we know that we will return to this beautiful land. And we know that our Chinese 'family' and friends will be waiting to greet us with open hearts and open arms – just as we will greet them.