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Published: March 19th 2010
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Walking along the Li River
Mother teaching her child to garden On arriving in Yangshuo I panicked a little - maybe I have died and gone to heaven...? A quick check in the local shops confirmed I was ok though, there was no Marmite so I couldn't possibly be dead. (I know in my heaven there will be Marmite...)
So this isn't heaven, but maybe it is paradise? Yangshuo is a smallish town in Guangxi province and is surrounded by stunningly picturesque karst mountains (just like the ones you see as a backdrop to nearly every Chinese takeaway shop painting.) Its probably the most scenic place I have ever been to.
Karst mountains are formed when layers of soluable bedrock are eroded - in Yangshuo's case the rock is limestone. The hard rock that is left is shaped in beautiful conical mountains, towering upwards out of otherwise very flat land.
In Yangshuo I found a willing walking partner and we spent a day hiking between Yangdi and XingPing villages, along the banks of the jaw-dropping Li river, as bamboo rafts passed us by. We picked oranges to eat along the way and caught a bit of sun too. I also spent a day exploring Yangshuo town. Although the town
Walking along the Li River
Flower fields and karst mountains itself attracts thousands of tourists (most are Chinese domestic tourists) its maintained a lot of its local character. The tourism industry also means that there are plenty of courses available here so I attended a Chinese cooking lesson... if you want to be a guinea-pig for me when I get back you're welcome! (Actually I apparently make a good Chinese dish according to my teacher, maybe I should stick to that and leave the Englsh recipes alone in future...)
In the evening I went to the renowned local light show, which is directed by Zhang Yimou who also directed that stunning opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics. The show is called 'Impressions' and is held at Sanjie Liu and is on the world's largest natural stage - the Li river itself. Over 600 local people make up the cast and the story is that of the indigenous groups from the area. The show was extremely entertaining and professional seeing as the actors were locals, and the lighting and effects were absolutely stunning.
My last day in Yangshuo was spent cycling with a group from my hostel. We hired bikes and the hostel owner, Yan, took us for a
Walking along the Li River
Green meadows and karst mountains ride up the Yulong river to Dragon Bridge. The scenery around the Li river was breath-taking, I didn't think it could get much better, but then I saw the Yulong. We cycled through fields full of flowers, past farms with chickens running around, past water buffalo grazing on the river banks, and through a 360 degree panorama of karst mountains. It was like a photo-shopped scene from a movie. When we got back to Yangshuo we cycled along the Li river to a 'secret' beach, where we swam in the river before returning to the hostel.
Then I had a big rush to get to the bus station, I needed to get to the nearby city of Guilin for a 9pm overnight sleeper train and as usual had delayed setting off and was therefore running pretty late! Just about managed to catch my train though, then a bus, then I went through Chinese immigration control and took tee subway before I eventually arrived in Hong Kong - exhausted!
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guinea pig
I will be your guinea pig as long as you promise it is a chinese meal and not a peruvian one- dont want to be eaten.... Ginny has had a male kid so we already have the main ingredient! Kid chinese style?