Highlights
- Yangshuo is a backpacker paradise that caters to westerners, all amongst the exotic backdrop of limestone mountains. An amazing respite from China city life.
- Don't ever tell a little old Chinese lady to "Go Away!" unless you want her to do the opposite and hiss at you for the next few hours.
- You may now call Tania "Tai Chi Tania". After a class with the master, she is now a master of the meditation martial art.
The "should I go snorkeling again or catch up on blogging all day instead" version
Having just completed a 19 hour bus and train trip through southern China, and over two weeks roaming through deeply local terrain that only showed signs of western life in its plethora of western stores and fast food chains, we couldn’t have been happier to arrive in one of those backpacker-friendly towns easily found all throughout the world. This time, it was Yangshuo, just outside of the more famous Guilin.
We got into town at night when the sun had already gone to bed, so we couldn’t really grasp what this tiny city’s surroundings had to offer, but we did take in what the inner city was giving. And mostly that’s restaurants and bars tailored to us white folk. We had burritos, pizzas, and lasagna, or what the locals considered to be those dishes, and we played pool while listening to an odd array of musical hits from throughout the last 30 or so years. This night had nothing to do with China, and we loved it.
Wanting to take-in and absorb as much of a culture within a limited amount of time is one thing, but jumping from 100% your culture to 100% another culture for 3 straight weeks creates too much of a detachment for folks who are on (a very extended) honeymoon. Although we want to see and understand everything about China, we also need to take time, relax, and enjoy the other element of what we’re doing here…vacationing. And even though Clark Griswold will disagree, vacationing needs to include down time, comfort time, and R&R time. And very necessarily, that comfort time needs to happen in the context of what you’re used to back home. That’s what Yangshuo gave to us.
Click for a sneak peak at Yangshuo
Click for a sneak peak at Yangshuo
Yet we did absorb the unique setting in Yangshuo, though. On Wednesday, Tania, Susie, Michael and I jumped on some mountain bikes and took a tour of the surrounding limestone mountain areas. When I say this corner of the world looks like nothing else on this planet, I’m pretty sure that’s accurate, mostly because we’ve watched all of the Planet Earth episodes (the best reason to own Blu-ray), and there was nothing like this in any episodes other than southern China.
These aren’t even mountains. And they’re not hills. They’re some strange combination of the two that jut quickly into the sky and dive back into the earth just as quickly, completely covered in the greenest moss this side of the local Chia Pet factory. From a scenic attraction standpoint, this was the highlight of China for me, and it didn’t disappoint, for it’s truly like nothing I’ve ever seen nor imagined.
We rode the bikes through tiny villages past chicken farms and men watching the world pass from their cement doorstep. The roads weren’t always smooth, meaning Tania had to put on her off-roading hat and rough it through uneven terrain, completely against her liking. She did great though, and we eventually made our way to the river, where we would gradually (aka slowwwwwwwwwly) make our way down the river via bamboo raft driven by a bamboo wielding pushman.
If you couldn’t tell, the bamboo raft ride was quite mild, but a great way for Tania and me in one boat, and Susie and Michael in the other, to rest from our bike ride and take in the scenery. We were occasionally interrupted by dams that we needed to ride over with our feet held high so they didn’t get completely drenched. All in all, the river ride was a nice respite in what would become an arduous trek.
The arduous part of the day came after another short bike ride, up to Half Moon Cliff. After parking our bikes at the local restaurant, we walked up a million or so steps to a stunning view of the valley below and the never ending site of limestone hills. If that was the whole story, we would look back on that hike quite longingly, but that’s not the whole story.
The missing piece of the story is the group of women who walked up the hill with us. Step for step. Every step of the way trying to sell us water or soda that was tucked away in their Styrofoam coolers wrapped in yellow tape draped over their shoulders. We guessed that normally these women made a killing from those out of shape laowais who didn’t know how high the hike went, but Frank warned us of these little ladies, so we were prepared to make the ascent sans their water, no matter how thirsty we may become. And we did get quite thirsty.
Luckily Susie bought a bottle at the top of the hill and shared it with us, but this made one particular little lady very upset because in her mind, it’s one bottle per person.
After Tania and I took in the site and snapped a few pictures, we headed down the hill ahead of Susie and Michael, who went the extra distance to see another corner of the peak.
The little old lady was the only of her group to follow us down the hill. Not wanting her to bother us all the way down, we stopped and asked her to keep walking ahead of us. When she insisted on staying by our side, Tania laid into her with what we’re assuming is not a local favorite phrase in Cantonese…”Go away.” Whether the locals like it or not, this lady was piiiiiiiiissed. She yelled and hissed and made sure we knew how rude she thought that was. She did eventually fade off into the distance, but as she did, she made a point to stop every 2-3 minutes to look back at us and scream “GO AWAY. WAWAWAWAWA. GO AWAY!!!” Even though we don’t want to offend the locals in any way on this trip, this little rag could have screamed all day and we wouldn’t have cared. She lost all her allotted points on the way up.
Another hiker, who we found out was from India and Canada, on his way up the hill stopped us to ask what the lady’s issue was. We told him and he had a good laugh about it.
That was the highlight of the hike. The lunch and ride back into town were uneventful except for the storm of cars we had to navigate through. We did a little shopping, meaning we summoned our newly refined negotiating skills, and then headed back for a nap before the group’s farewell dinner. Since the 2nd to last night would be on a train and the last night was in expensive Hong Kong, Frank chose for us to feast in Yangshuo. We laughed, we cried, then we hit the hay to get a good night sleep before our last overnight train.
Before we left Yangshuo, though, Tania took a Tai Chi class and learned all of the 10 basic movements. I took a cooking class with Tim and Michael, where we learned to make beer fish (the local specialty) with catfish, tempura deep-fried stuffed eggplant, and pork dumplings. My dumplings tasted much better than they looked. It’s crazy how tough it is to properly wrap those little suckers when stuffed with so much filling (and when you have such stubby fingers like me).
All in all, Yanghsuo was a welcomed stop for the group where we didn’t feel like such outsiders for once. If you’re ever in China and are feeling too out of your element, take the train to Guilin and the bus to Yangshuo, and you’ll feel much more at home.
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