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Leaving the big city we were soon travelling deep into the Chinese countryside with the rain lashing at the train windows and paddy fields on either side for as far as the eye can see. Eventually we reached Yangshuo, a town surrounded by soaring limestone peaks (Karsts) on the Li River. The town itself is quite attractive and fun with loads to do, but it's the surrounding Karst scenery that is the real reason that visitors come here; it's simply stunning. We took a boat trip up the Li River and cycled around the paddy fields to get a better look by day, and by night we went out on the river again to watch the ancient practice of fishing using cormorant birds. We hope that the pictures do the area justice because it really is amazing scenery and rivals any other natural beauty we have seen on our travels so far.
One of the big attractions in Yangshuo is a huge music and light show with a cast of 600 which is performed on the river with the Karst scenery as the back drop. It has been put together by the Chinese film director who is choreographing the opening
ceremony of the Olympics and if what we saw is anything to go by it's going to be quite a show.
Yangshuo also gave us a chance to learn some new skills and experience some Chinese culture first hand, taking a painting class and a Chinese cooking class, and experiencing slightly painful Chinese massage and cupping (see pictures!). The cooking class was an attempt to get a better appreciation of the complexities of Chinese food, but although we somehow managed to produce 5 courses which tasted ok, we were a bit horrified by the amount of salt and oil that goes into every dish. At least we stuck to familiar meat like chicken and pork. We have been reliably informed by a Chinese source that if eating dog we should try the golden ones because they taste better than the brown ones, and black ones don't taste very nice at all!
If the Karst scenery wasn't beautiful enough our next stop was the Longji rice terraces (Dragon's Backbone terraces) of Longsheng. These terraces have been around for 800 years and are worked by the minority Yao and Zhang people. We stayed in the Yao village of Dazhai where
Longii rice terraces
800 years old and still going strongthe women are famous for their long hair and the next day we walked through the amazing rice terraces to the Zhang village of Ping'an where we were treated to a fun show from the local people, with audience participation! Our next stop is Hong Kong, so back to the big city. Our week in rural China has been great but we have only seen a tiny bit of the spectacular scenery on offer. We would love to return to China to discover more of this amazing country in the future.
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JohnandChris
non-member comment
We've just caught up with a vast chunk of your amazing experiences -- from the Punjab to the rice terraces. The photographs and the writing really bring it to life fabulously. We can't wait to tease more out of you when you're back and we're all chatting -- whenever that might be. And (perhaps) tasting Neil's new culinary skills (what a life-changer, eh?). The earthquake casts a grim shadow over the last part of your journey so far and we're hoping you were only affected emotionally/at a distance. Where were you heading next? Saving making Sydney Bridge model for a summer-time treat. Notice there are no photos of your own ongoing multi-model building projects -- winter palace made of water lily leaves; hot-bamboo-torture-cup Great Wall,' chopstick Forbidden City, etc -- but we expect you're too modest. Lots of love. PS More streetscape scenes and street furniture photos, please, for use in MA project work - bins in Candy-Ha would have been particularly useful.