We stayed in a cute Tea Cozy hotel. Once again, it was
different from the modern hotel and apartment in Beijing
and Shanghai and it was also very different from
the simple hotel in the Ping An terraces. It was in
the countryside and it was so cute!
Being in the countryside means that there are more big bugs!
I am not great with insects and I had the shock of my life one morning. We were
sat at a table outside waiting for breakfast. A waiter calmly said to us ‘one
moment please,’ and pulled a giant beetle out by it’s antenna from a crack in
the table right beside me! He then threw it over the fence before coming back
and asking if we were ready to order. All I can say is that my face must have
been a picture!!
We stayed in Yangshuo for five days. We were worried that we
would be staying there for too long. However, we didn’t need to worry as there
was plenty to do! Part of the reason why we stayed in this hotel in Yangshuo
was to try and avoid the crowds of Chinese tourists as it was a Chinese
national holiday at the beginning of May.
We were so lucky with the weather!! The hotel receptionists
said it had been raining for about two months and while we were there it was
the first hot weather they had had during the year.
The land is flat in Yangshuo but there are around 20,000
mountains all around. This makes the landscape unique!! It is really quite spectacular!!
We wanted to have a
family bike ride. My Mum can’t ride a bike very well so she had to learn
quickly!! What a beautiful setting we were in for her to learn too! There was a
grandfather farming with his young grandson near by. They must have wondered
what those silly foreigners were up to!! My parents rode a tandem bike and me
and my sister rode individual bikes.
What was supposed to be a little bike ride turned into a five
hour adventure on our first day. We were a bit silly though, we rode in the
middle of the day with barely any water, no hats and we got lost! (That’s
probably why we ended up cycling for five hours!!!) We stopped in an old
village and bought some traditional Chinese hats. (My mum thinks hats are life
savers in hot weather. She’s probably right too but I don’t like wearing hats!
They just don’t suit me! However, these hats were different! I love them)!
By the end of the day, I had a stupid looking t-shirt tan (ok
so it wasn’t a tan, I got sun burnt!) and my fingers remained white because I
had been gripping the handle bars all day!
We went on a few bike rides during our stay. We also went on
one with our guide. We went to a cave. I have probably seen more impressive
caves in the past but the fact that the whole of the caves were lit up in
different colours made it very Chinese and therefore, very different! It was
like a 1970’s themed cave. You could also have a mud bath there. It looked like
fun but I am not a fan of mud. Luckily, I wasn’t wearing a swimming costume so
unfortunately, I couldn’t cover myself in mud!
We also saw a very big and very old tree.
We went to a Chinese minority ‘theme park’. This was probably
one of the strangest places I’ve been to in China China
My sister and I went on a night out in Yanghsuo town. We went
the day after the Chinese holiday had come to an end and so it was pretty
quiet! However, we went to a foreign bar and it played good music. Some
foreigners invited us to play beer pong with them and we spent a few hours
drinking and talking with them, exchanging stories about our experiences in China.
Our guide, Lily said
that in fifteen years, the town had changed drastically due to tourism. It has
changed so fast and so many people have gone to live there that the Chinese
government has had to make an entire new town near by! Unfortunately, to do
this, they will have to destroy rice farms and this is destroying the
countryside. On one of our bike rides, we literally rode through what looked
like a big building site. It was dusty and ugly! Another example of a place
being destroyed by tourism!!
We visited an authentic fan and painting shop in a
nearby village that Lily knew well. The owner was so lovely and she let us help make a large fan that was in the process of being made. She also gave us a very good
deal on her items. Everything was handmade by her family. The oldest member of
her family was eighty years old and the work that the grandmother had done was
amazing! We bought three fans and a hanging picture for 600RMB. (That’s like
£60 for four items of original handmade authentic Chinese art)!!!
After going to see the Shaolin Zen Musical Ritual near the
Shaolin Temple a few months ago, I thought I would never be able to see another
show that would be as good as it. In Yangshuo, we went to see a ‘Light Show’.
Yet another spectacular show in yet another beautiful location on a lake
surrounded by mountains. The man who put it all together was responsible for
the opening ceremony performance in the Beijing Olympics back in 2008.
Therefore, the performance was obviously brilliant!!! There was a very famous
Chinese singer in the performance too.
We went on two boat trips. The first was a small raft that
fitted two people. My sister and I paired up on one boat and my parents paired
up on another. Their boat man seemed to know a lot more about what he was doing
than ours. Ours must have been a beginner because he wasn’t very good at
paddling. There are small drops all along the river and there is a special way
to push the raft down without making it topple. The last drop was quite big.
Our paddler missed the drop point and ended up going down a completely random
part. Even from a distance I could see other paddlers looking at us in a
worried manner. Luckily, our raft did not capsize and we remained mostly dry!
The other boat ride was a raft made for four people.
Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t great and it gave the surrounding mountains
near the lake an eerie look. It was a long boat ride, about two hours but it
was strangely relaxing despite the rain!
We saw the location that is printed on the 20RMB note. It was
raining and therefore I wanted to stay dry. I wish I had been more enthusiastic
because it actually looks beautiful! My parents went and took lots of photos
but I stayed dry in the car. How boring of me!!!
Another amazing thing we did was go on a cormorant fishing
trip. We thought it would be a show but in actual fact, we went on an actual
fishing trip. I have no interest in fishing whatsoever but this was something
else!! The Chinese fishermen take the boats out at night and use these special
birds to fish for them! So off we went in this boat with a fisherman and six
cormorants on both sides of the boat.
The fisherman unleashes them and sets
them free into the water. They all have a string tied to their necks. The birds
swim under the water, catch he fish and then come back to the surface. The fisherman
catches them by the string with a hook and pulls them in one at a time. He then
opens the bird’s mouth and the fish fall out into a bowl. It looks sometimes as
though the bird might be getting hurt but it is harmless for the cormorant and
this method has been used for thousands of years! It is really amazing! We were
even allowed to hold them and have photos taken. My dad even took the fish out
of the bird’s mouth!
Lily also took us to see a farmer's market. Bird flu did cross my mind briefly as we walked through the endless cages of chickens and ducks! There were so many crates of baby ducklings, chicks and rabbits. They were so cute! I really hoped that they would be for pets but I know the reality was that they were to be eaten!
It was also my sister's birthday while in Yangshuo. She is a vegetarian and had a hard time finding vegetarian food while in China. A lot of people don't understand what being a vegetarian means here. Even Lily made us giggle by responding to my sister's vegetarian comment by saying, 'but you can still eat pork though right?' Luckily, we found a vegetarian restaurant for her. I have to say, I love meat but this restaurant had some of the best food I've ever eaten in China!!!
Yangshuo is a really great place. It’s very beautiful and
charming. It is a place to go to experience real China
Our next stop was… Chengdu
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