A Mini Holiday in Gorgeous Yangshou

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After our first experience of a hard sleeper which wasn’t as bad as we were expecting, and was a bit more than half the price of a soft sleeper, we arrived in Guilin. We jumped into a taxi and headed to our home for the night, Backstreet Youth Hostel 120yn per night for a big double and en-suite. After a quick freshen up we headed out into the heat excitedly in our shorts (it had been a few weeks since we had been able to don these items of clothing). We weren’t really up for much sightseeing so we had a walk around, found Shan Hua Lake where there are two massive pagodas in the middle and that was pretty much it, we didn’t really do much else, apart from….yep you’ve guess it….eat and drink!!!

After a day and night in Guilin it was time to head to Yangshou. Yangshou is famous for its gorgeous scenery of limestone karsts among the vast paddie fields set aside the Li River and the Yulong River. It took about an hour and a half to get there on the bus for a mere 15yn each, ironically it then cost 30yn for a 10 min taxi ride to our home for the next 4 nights.

We had chosen to stay at Outside Inn, recommended to us by the two Aussies we met at the Tiger Leaping Gorge, it cost 120yn a night for a huge room and en-suite. Outside Inn is situated 4km away from Yangshou town itself and is basically in the middle of the gorgeous karst countryside, it has its own restaurant which is where we pretty much ate and drank all the time.

For the next 5 days we chilled out big time, enjoying the hammocks they had there and the peace and quiet. We participated in a spot of kayaking along the Yulong River, bike riding along the Li River to the Dragon Bridge and Moon Hill, we walked into Yangshou one day and of course enjoyed plenty of beers. If there is one place to visit in China it is Yangshou, and if there is one place to stay it is Outside Inn. This was our last stop in China and it ended our 6 weeks in this amazing country perfectly. All we can say is we will be back!!!!

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