As much as I loved my Shanghai visit, I felt excited to get away from the busy vibrant city to experience the countryside down south. I was impressed with the immaculately paved roads and enjoyed seeing all the greenery planted between the roads. Well looked after that is for certain.

One of the first things I noticed as we got further away from Shanghai was all the agriculture going on, everyone out busy working in the fields and gardens that looked plentiful. I loved seeing the tea grow on the hillsides and all the variations of Bamboo, I never knew there were so many different kinds of either plant! The landscape was clean and not littered with garbage etc. like I thought I would see. Everyone carrying on with much pride as we would do here in Canada it seemed.

I was excited to visit the Yellow Mountain even though I have not seen the movie 'Avatar’. I live close to the Rocky Mountains so I always marvel at their beauty when I get a chance to visit. The Yellow Mountain is quite different though, such different shapes than what I am used to seeing in Canada and those steps. Wow I just couldn’t imagine how many steps I climbed.

I guessed two thousand, but who knows, since I read there is something like 60,000 steps dating back 1500 years. Quite amazing and I will never forget those men that climb those steps day in and day out. Unbelievable, really! Unless you see it to believe!

I felt tempted more than once to hitch a ride with those nice men that carry you around but didn’t want to be a poor sport nor did I want to pay that money out for such things. I needed my money for shopping! Now one thing that would have been the icing on the cake would have been to have a soak in the hot springs after our grueling work out. Wouldn’t have that been nice?

The scenery is forever changing from one cloud to another, I have 3 pictures of one spot and they all look so different. Really beautiful and I was very happy to see the Yellow Mountain.

My other favorite item in the Anhui district was Hongcun village; wow so many picture-perfect spots! Wish we had more time there, that is for certain. It was so hot that day, I was overheating terribly until we found this great little tea shop that forever poured new flavors of tea into our little teacups. Yum, so good and refreshing I bought 5 kinds of green tea. I haven’t stopped drinking it either, so perfect when it is fresh!

I would have loved more time to explore this beautiful ancient village, maybe another time I hope so!

Well all and all it was a great trip and so beautiful in so many ways. I thank everyone involved in planning this extraordinary trip for us agents from Canada. It was an eye opener indeed and I will encourage my clients to travel to China in the future.

Best regards, Yvonne Anderson