Yangshuo

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Day 19

After 15 hours on our least comfortable sleeper train yet, but still feeling reltatively refreshed, we arrived in Guilin and took a two hour bus ride to Yangshou. Yesterday was National day, the start of a week long public holiday where, apparantly, 300 million Chinese take to the road for their holiday. It was therefore no surprise to arrive to jam packed traffic. We had an orientation walk around the very busy, but pretty town centre, which was full of small market shops and surrounded by beautiful tree-covered limestone mountains.

We had a relaxed afternoon and evening where we sampled the local beerfish--a local fresh water fish marinated in a beer and chilli sauce. Delicious! In the evening we chilled out with a few quiet happy hour drinks.

Day 20

Today we had a full days bike ride, accompanied by a local guide, we started by dodging through traffic in the hectic, and slightly scary, town centre, but soon were cycling down quiet lanes with beautiful mountain scenery, and through rice paddies and along the riverside. The views were fantastic and the scenic bike-ride was a welcome change from the vast cities from the first weeks in China.

In the evening we took a boat out onto the pitch black river to view cormarant fishing. Practiced in the area for 100s of years (now only for the benifit of the tourists) it was interesting to see, though an unpleasent experience for the birds. After this we had our second go at the beerfish before meeting others from the group for a couple of drinks.

Day 21

Today we donned our aprons and chefs hats and attending a Chinese cooking lesson. This started with an eye-opening, and disturbing, visit to the local market, where, as well as selecting meat and veg. for the dishes we would be cooking, we witnessed cages of live chickens, rabbits, cats and dogs that were being slaughtered and butchered on site. After the walk back and the introduction to the cooking, our stomachs had just about settled and we rustled up some kung pao chicken, a beef and mushroom dish and some chive dumplings. The class was great fun and the food was delicious, if we do say so ourselves!

We spent the rest of the day pottering around the town centre and the markets before boarding our final sleeper train in China, that would take us toward our final stop--Hong Kong.

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Photos

Local market
Dogs and cats were being slaughtered and cooked at the back of this market