Yangshuo, China

We spent four wonderful days in Yangshuo, which was our favourite part of China. Yangshuo is a small city in southern China, in the midst of stunning karsts (limestone mountains covered with green trees), and very fertile farming land with rice fields and fruit trees, so it is very green and lush here. We met a really nice Swiss couple on the way there, and we convinced them to come and stay at the same guesthouse as us, so it was really nice getting to know them. We stayed in a Chinese home with a very lovely family, who really made us feel at home. All the meals were included, and the food was absolutely delicious -the best food we had in China, with 10 different homemade Chinese dishes each night that were shared with all the other people staying at the guesthouse at family style dinners. It was really nice to sit all together to eat and to get to know so many great people and exchange stories.

The first evening we arrived we went to a fantastic outdoor performance that’s done on the river, surrounded by the karsts, which are illuminated during the show. It was a beautiful evening, with the full moon shining brightly. We were so impressed with the show, with over 600 performers, which was so well choreographed. It is directed by a famous Chinese movie director, and portrays the life of local villagers from long ago, with beautiful traditional costumes and great music.

The following day we rented bikes and had a delightful day exploring the surrounding area, in the intense heat. We started by biking over to a place called Moon hill, where you can do a hike up to a rock formation with a big hole in the centre that looks like the moon. At the very top there are breath-taking views of the surrounding karsts. We then continued our bike ride on a more secluded and very bumpy path through farming areas and local houses, which was very beautiful and very interesting to see. With each corner we turned we would be in awe of another stunning vista. It was also neat to see the farmers hard at work and to see people bringing their cows or oxen along the path for a walk down to the field to feed or to the river to cool off.

After dinner that evening we went into town with some other new friends from the guesthouse to the night market, where it was fun to wander around and check out the different stalls and shops.

The next day we organized a group trip with all the others staying at the guesthouse (thirteen in all) as everyone was interested in doing a bamboo raft trip down the river, so we decided to do it all together, which was fun. We did the three hour rafting trip down the Li River, which has stunning scenery all the way along, and it was a very relaxing afternoon. Our raft guide was able to tell us a lot about the area and he was so happy to speak with Wehuns and one of the other fellows on our raft that spoke Mandarin as well, so that really added to the trip and made it more interesting.

We had another pretty full day the next day, and we started out the day by exploring another bike trail, which was even more spectacular than the first one we had done! In some parts we rode along a very narrow trail with rice fields directly on both sides of it and the beautiful karsts off in the distance. Some parts of the trail were even narrower, with steep drop offs to ditches on both sides, where I fell off my bike twice, so it was very difficult riding! After this point we must have missed a turn and we got very lost in a farmer’s field, which had some fruit trees, lined with thorn bushes and we have the many scratches on our legs to prove this! It must have been at this point that I popped my bike tire, although I did not notice until about an hour later, so no wonder it was taking me so much effort to ride my bike! Anyhow, we finally came across a farmer who helped us find our way out of the field and back to the trail, so that was a relief. Once we got further down the road and a noticed my flat tire we found a tiny bike repair shop where they replaced the tire, and found three different puncture sites from the thorns! The way back to our place was much smoother and we returned our bikes, and then headed out to a cave to check it out. It was a neat water cave that you take a boat to get into, and once inside then we walked around the massive interior with a guide, and it was interesting to see.

The following day we had to pack up and leave Yangshuo, but we had the whole day to enjoy before flying out since our flight to Shenzhen was very late that evening. We decided to use the day to visit the Dragon’s Backbone rice terraces with another couple we had met, which was about a 3 hour drive from Yangshuo. The rice terraces are a really beautiful sight to see, especially from the two different viewpoints we walked up to at the very top of the terraces. The rice plants have started to change colour, so the fields are now a beautiful golden colour in some spots. On the way back we stopped into a small village where we saw some women in traditional dresses from the Yao tribe, who all have very long hair – they hold the Guiness book of world record for the longest hair in the world! They use this fact to make some income, and we were haggled most of the morning at the rice terraces by women of this tribe trying to convince us to pay them to see them let down their hair and comb it. Wehuns finally gave in and was curious to see what this was all about, so this group of women was very pleased to show us the different ways of wearing their hair, depending on whether they were single, married, or had children, and they also sang a traditional song, so it was neat to see in the end! We then continued on our way and stopped into a rural restaurant for dinner before being dropped off at the airport to make our way to Shenzhen. The next day we headed into Hong Kong by train to meet up with my parents and it was so great to see them again! More to come on that soon….