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Published: April 13th 2008
Guillin & Yangshou Jan 08
We arrived in Guillin very early in the morning,bleary eyed after another sleepless night spent on a Karaoke bus playing an awful combination of chinese pop and Westlife, AAAARRRRGGGHHH!!!
Guillin in the morning was misty but in the afternoon when the sun was out we could see the limestone mountains surrounding the city and it was beautiful (for a city anyway). We had been told that Yangshou was far nicer and not to spend too much time in Guillin so we just spent one day there, so the following morning we got a bus to Yangshou. By this point in the trip we were a bit tired of cities and were excited about going to Yangshou which has plenty of countryside surrounding it. Our rather out of date lonely planet described it as a 'sleepy yet hip village' although when we arrived it was far from sleepy. They main town centre isn't very big but it was filled with bars and restaurants, the bars though were mainly blasting out awful chinese pop and dance music, many had dancers outside trying to entice you in ! The dancing was almost as bad as the music
! Despite this we loved it here, the best bit was hiring bikes and cycling around the countryside. After 10 minutes of cycling we were well away from the town and it was really peaceful, we surrounded by beautiful scenery. When Cycling through the tiny farming villages we loved getting a feel for 'the real China'. We saw a lot of local people using their cows and buffalos for various farming tasks and at one point a man came past us with his 50 or so goats causing a bit of a traffic jam ! The children seemed really happy to see us and shouted out the English questions they must have been learning at school, then just giggled at the answers from the weird looking foreigners!
One of the evenings there we went on a fishing excursion but one with a difference. It's a technique that used to be used but is now just a touristy thing, instead of using a rod the commerant birds do all the work. They are sent into the river by their owner, when they catch a fish they are whisked back onto the boat and the fish is regurgetated back out of
their throats by the fishermen, nice. A bizzare sight to see but very effective !
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foz
non-member comment
dis n dat
looks quality mate!! It is quality seeing all the piccies of the amazing sights you are seeing. however, it is kinda testing our friendship cause I feel sick with envy everytime i think of you two having a ball while i'm here stuck in the grind of life........ dont know if our friendship will every recover (maybe once you are both here suffering with me it will). I have lost track with your current destination so give me a email/bell and let me know where you are. I promise i wont be bitter??