Guilin, Yangshuo to replace Tibet

   Because Tibet has been closed to tourists indefinitely, our agent, China Focus, has revised our tour to include the Guilin/Yangshuo area on the Li river in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Guilin is an ancient city named for the fragrant Osmanthus trees which populate the city. In fact, “Guilin” means “forest of sweet Osmanthus” in Chinese. This senic spot has been a population center since at least 314 BC. Guilin was used as the planet Kashyyyk in Star Wars III.
      Yangshuo has become a center for rock-climbing on the surrounding karst peaks and is very popular with foreign backpackers. Karst terrain is formed by the dissolution of layers of soluble bedrock, like limestone and dolomite. Karst regions display distinctive surface characteristics, such as sink-holes, caves and abrupt peaks and cliffs. It sounds like a very interesting region. We're looking forward to experiencing it!
      Incidentally, Yangshuo has, since 1994, been a sister city to the town of Morehead, Kentucky, USA.

Tibet is OUT!

I've just been informed by our agent, China Focus, that Tibet is now formally closed to all foreign tourists and is likely to be closed throughout the month of May when we will be in China. It will very likely be closed to all tourism until after the Olympic games in August for fear of additional disruption by activists politicising the Olympic games as a means to demonstrate for Tibetan autonomy in opposition to the political domination and exploitation of Tibet by the government of China. This age old struggle has been going on since the 1950's when the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, was forced out of the Potala Palace and into exile in India. From time to time the underlying tension erupts into violent demonstration and this is one of those times. Although Tibetan goals in China are generally supported by the Western world, it's unfortunate that the Olympic Games, an international sporting event, are being politicised worldwide by these Tibetan activists.