Where is Madeleine?

A little more about where Madeleine is from. She is from the southwestern province of Guangxi -- actually, Guangxi is not a "province" but is called "Guangxi Autonomous Region." The capital city of Guangxi is Nanning. Nanning is about 120 miles from the border of Vietnam. Madeleine is currently living at the Yulin First Social Welfare Institute (SWI) in the city of Yulin. Yulin is about a 3-hour drive from Nanning (east of Nanning). (The arrow on my map above is pointing just about right where Nanning and Yulin are located.) Guangxi is supposedly one of China's most picturesque regions, and they say that the traditional murals and scrolls you see with fishermen, bamboo rafts, etc. are depicting this area. The city of Guilin and nearby Yangshuo are known for their beauty and the "karst" landscape of sheer limestone cliffs/mountains that rise straight up along the Lijiang ("Li") River. We hope to spend a couple of days in Guilin after we get our babies and take a day cruise down the Li River - others who have done this say it's quite beautiful - and Nov/Dec is a wonderful time of year to do this - not too hot, not too cold, and just past the rainy season. Here are three links: one is to the Wikipedia page about Guangxi, and the other two are links to the photo galleries of two professional photographers that have some gorgeous photos of Guilin, Yangshuo, and the Li River (all in Guangxi). Some incredible photos here - you should take a peek!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guangxi

http://www.pbase.com/mgpimages/guangxi_china

http://www.pbase.com/jongky/yangshuo_2006