Rise and shine at 6.45 am for breakfast and with plenty of time to spare until we departed from the awesome Guizhou Colorful Yijing Hotel Zhenfeng; we took to exploring the huge compound of the hotel.
It's impossible not to fall in love with this traditional looking hotel that had all the modern amenities yet blessed with a relaxed, almost classical atmosphere! Pity i couldn't show you more of the photos which were mostly taken by my now-lost DSLR.
As mentioned in day 2, the hotel employed a lot of people from the minority tribe; the Buyi which had a large concentration within the county of Zhenfeng.
Maybe to bank on the cultural dollar, a traditional weaving tool was installed near the restaurant where we had our breakfast and two aunties from the tribe were stationed to showcase their long established skill.
Very friendly people and thanks to my okay mandarin, i managed to strike a conversation with them. Upon knowing we were leaving the county, they even sang a song to wish us a safe journey in China! *touched*
Can see that even dad couldn't bear to leave the hotel. However, the journey must continue as there's so much to see and do in the next few days!
Destination was near when i saw the name on the bridge; Maling River Bridge. How i know? Because our next stop was to check out Earth's most beautiful natural scar; the Maling River Canyon!
This is how spectacularly beautiful it is! As this is a canyon, we had to take an elevator from the ground level to about a hundred plus meters down.
The beauty of this canyon can be attributed to the many waterfalls cascading down the top! It was said that there are about a hundred over waterfalls along the 74.8 kilometers canyon.
We didn't see that many although it's sufficient to make us ooh and ahh every turn! Huan huan, our pretty tour guide, shared that the waterfalls were especially amazing when it's the rainy season.
Our walk along the canyon wasn't particularly hard but we still managed to work out quite a sweat due to the many steps; some of which could be high and / or wet due to their proximity to some of the waterfalls.
Did you see the rainbow in the middle of the photo?!
End-point of our trek; the best spot for photos and totally worth the sweat. I did notice a path further down that's already closed to the public. It seemed like there are a lot of abandoned tracks and it's best to gauge yourself; if path appeared desolate of humans, stay clear of it.
Dad was impressed; very, very impressed.
I have visited China no less than five times and this particular tour to Guizhou counts as the most memorable when it comes to scenery. It was also etched in my mind as the place where i lost my most expensive possession, so far.
Shot from the tail-end of our track; aside from the waterfalls, one interesting landscape would be the layers of downward facing green bushes which are in fact rocks with green moss / algae.
Suspension bridge linking this side of the canyon with the other side. Huan Huan actually would prefer us to use the same route back but adventurous me and daring dad asked if we could go back via the other route so that we can take more pictures!
Above us was the Maling River Bridge that we drove along earlier.
Water rafting is popular along the river during the summer period from June to October but as the canyon is more than 70 meters long, i am unsure which stretch is allowed.
You can't see clearly from this picture; there were easily about five waterfalls. Although they were literally narrow streams of water falling from the top; the view was really out of the world.
Slow motion video showcasing two of the canyon's waterfalls.
Well, your orientation isn't wrong. My dad and i went back on the same route as i had a fall down a slippery flight of stairs. I wasn't badly hurt but i am more worried for my dad's safety as a fall for his age could be lethal.
The injuries i suffered; cuts on my finger and wrist. What i didn't realise then was that i had a large bruise on my left thigh! No wonder it felt a bit sore then.
More of the canyon.
These were taken on the other end of the track; near the elevator and also known as the path connecting to the other side of the canyon. I couldn't stand the fact that i didn't succeed in going the other route and this would be some kind of consolation, i guess.
Video taken in the elevator on our way back to the main entrance. From the surface, the place actually didn't look like there's something that spectacular beneath!
Arrival in the city of Xinyi where we shall stay for two nights at Argyle Hotel; in an area near a shopping belt and where circular pedestrian bridges help to create access across the roads.
Dad badly needed warm clothes and we dropped by this particular store across the hotel; things were incredibly cheap. Imagine a pair of socks for about 20 Singapore cents and comfortable cloth shoes for about S$4.00! As the store was pretty large, we spent a good part of our night going through the merchandise!
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