Search

Weekend in Yangshuo

Challis Hackley
Feb 5, 2018
5 min read

So I had four days off from teaching and some friends and I went south to the Guangxi Province. We spent our first full day in Guilin city and the next two days in Yangshou before leaving on Monday. It was a blast and here are the details.

Quick Reference

Travel

Peter's bus, Mopeds, and (as always) lots of Walking, and a plane

Accommodations

Wada Yanshou Hostel on West Street in Yangshou

Food

We ate a lot on or around West Street in Yangshou. I really liked the German food that I got there, but we got some American too. Really good food all-in-all.

Activities

Sight-seeing, hiking, boat riding, moped riding, mud caves, hot springs, river drifting, shopping

What I Did

Saturday

Peter and his family (his wife and nephew) took us on mopeds before dawn so that we could be at the Li River for sunrise. Traveling by moped at that hour of day was freezing but it was well worth the view. You can't see the stars a lot here in China, but that morning in Yangshou, I could see them all as clear as day, could even make out a few constellations, Orion, big dipper, little dipper. I watched the moon move between the silhouettes of the mountains. I haven't felt the urge to paint that strongly in a long time, but when cameras can't capture the moment, what else is left for you?

We arrived on the bank of the Li River and took a boat up the river as the sun came up. That was its own kind of magic. The spray of water on your face, the gradual lightening of the sky until you realize you can make out the trees on the mountains, the peaceful quiet that can only be provided by being sequestered by water. Once in a lifetime.

When the sun actually started coming up, we pulled the boat off the the side and appreciated the sunrise from the bank. We watched some cormorant fishing and skipped rocks with some little boys. We didn't get back on the boat, instead we walked on the street, along the river, and through the towns along the way. We stopped once at an overlook where you could see the scene that is pictured on the back of the 20 yuan note.

We kept walking until we arrived back were we started, where we had left the mopeds. We loaded the mopeds onto a fairy so that we could cross the river and go explore the countryside. We drove over to an overlook, a short hike that gave us the best view in China, possible in my life.

From there we took the mopeds and explored the countryside. We saw rice fields and the Yulong river. We stopped to take pictures of the ancient dragons bridge. I wanted to go bridge jumping there but Peter said that it had just been made illegal and he wasn't to anxious on breaking any laws no matter how much I wanted to.

Our last stop on the moped tour was the Moon Hill and the Magic Golden Water cave. The mud caves in the Golden water caves are a favorite of ILP groups, but I wasn't expecting all the great lighting and cool rock formations. I really love caves so that was all really cool, and then we got to the mud pools which were really fun. You kind of float through it. Its how I imagine salt lakes are, like the Dead Sea, where you just float and can't sink unless you really try. The mud caves were followed by hot springs, which was a nice change from the cool mud. Such a cool spot in Yangshou.

That nights we got to watch cormorant fishing! We were back a the banks of the Li River and Peter showed us some of the famous fishing that we had heard about. It was mesmerizing watching the birds flit beneath the water, chasing their prey. They move so much more gracefully below the surface than above. The animal-lover in me thought that the whole system verged on animal abuse. The fisherman tied a piece of straw around their throats to keep them from swallowing any f the fish they caught. When they weren't swimming he kept them tied to his boat by their ankle, and he always kept one there while the others were swimming so that they'd be discouraged from running away and leaving the one. The way the fisherman handled them bothered me to, gruff, always picking them up by the neck and tossing them back in the water. I was still able to appreciate it as the bit of culture that it was. The people in that area had been fishing like that for hundreds of years.

After the fishing demonstration Peter left us and we meandered around west street, peering in the shops and taking in the sights. Everything was going good until I stepped in some vomit. I tried to be good humored about it but my heart wasn’t really into shopping and sightseeing after that.

Sunday

In the morning Peter took us out kind of early so that the traffic wouldn’t be to bad while we drove mopeds for the first time. We each got our own and Peter led us around the Chinese country-side, showing us the villages, taking pictures for us, and shouting back fun facts as we drove. We saw people working there fields and painting by the side of road, and we got some great views by the river. I loved it.

We stopped by back at our hotel after our moped tour and watched some volleyball at a local gym. I realized that I missed playing volleyball quite a lot.

Anyway, we stopped by our hotel to change and then, that afternoon we took a car into the forest and went river drifting. We bought our tickets and stored our stuff at the front desk area and then took a cart up to the top of the river. It was nuts. Nothing like that would be allowed in the States, certainly not without signing a waiver. They gave us helmets and life vests to wear over our swimsuit and hopped into a raft and away we went. There was certainly a lot of screaming and maybe a bit of swearing but it was a blast. And we took the tram back down afterwards and took the car back to Yangshuo.

When we go back we were hungry after a long day and, after we changed, we set out on the town and got some great food. There's a German street in Yangshou, so we picked a restaurant there and ordered. I got a sublime schnitzel sandwich but before that I found that mashed potatoes can be fried... and they are freaking delicious. So that was all good.

We walked around and did some last-night shopping, climbed the wrong mountain, and watch a fire-dancer perform. It was a great night in China, for sure.

Monday

Peter sent us off to the airport in the morning. He picked us p from the hotel and dropped us off at the bus station with a huge bag of citrus fruit from his farm for us to share.

We got our tickets and got through security literally in thirty minutes, and we had gotten to the airport three hours early. We we had a long wait. I swear, we started boarding at 12:30 and by 12:40 everyone had entered the plane, stowed their luggage, and found a seat. They just know how to move here and they do it without thinking.