Blogs from Yangshuo, Guangxi, China, Asia - page 10

We got up this morning had had breakfast at the same restaruant we had eaten dinner at the night before. I had the best yougurt with bananas there. I can't remember the name of the place. The guide, Mu Ying Mo, found us there and we rented bikes and went on our way. We rode out of town and stopped at an old farm house which is set up to show tourists how people used to live in the area. The road is lined with rice fields and we stopped a few times to take pictures. From there we went into a small village where she showed us around. You can go into the houses and look around to see how people live which I thought was quite strange because the people that lived there weren't ... read more

Because it was pitch dark out when we arrived to Yangshuo we didn't see the karst mountains in and around the city. We were really surprised when we woke up to see these gigantic masses everywhere. It happened to be raining today so we went and had a leisurely breakfast and saw a sign for a cooking class at Cloud 9 on our way back to the hotel. We stopped in and signed up since we didn't want to be outside in the rain touring. For around $17 each we had an afternoon class where we walked to the farmers market and picked up supplies to make the meals that the group had chosen. This was an experience in itself. There were all sorts of things for sale including dog, cat, chicken, rabbit, frogs, snails and ... read more

We arrived in Guilin at 5am and boarded a bus to Yangshuo, about an hour away. Most people fell asleep on the bus, given the early hour, but I stayed awake and was treated to the wonderful, yet slightly eerie sight of the Karst hills as day began to break. The hills jut out of the otherwise flat land at irregular intervals, each one different to the next, both in size and shape. It is very strange, particularly in the early morning. I also saw a water buffalo being led along the road by a farmer, which also made me smile. Indeed, since leaving our last big city, Chengdu, we had seen a lot more of rural China. Gone were the flashing neon signs and western brand names, and not before time. Yangshuo, from a landscape ... read more

Interesting Fact Number One: Even though China's mammoth land mass can cover over five time zones, they actually just use ONE. Interesting Fact Number Two: There are 1.3 BILLION people here. Interesting Fact Number Three: They have 3240 TV broadcast stations...eat that CBC!!! And so, I have entered that mysterious land that I used to be so fascinated by as a child. I used to read the Golden Encyclopedia Brittanica over and over, mulling over a wide variety of facts and legends about the land of Ghengis Khan and Confuscius. China was this allusive figure that I was dying to meet...in my everyday existence of "Chinatowns", "Chinese Food" and that classic gym teacher game of "The Great Wall of China". Economically speaking, we now know it is the most powerful in the world having recently surpassed ... read more

Due to the manic travelling conditions witnessed during Chinese new year celebrations, up until now I’d bought all my train tickets ahead of schedule. This hadn‘t been possible for my onward journey from Guangzhou to Guilin, where I was hoping to spend new year in the nearby town of Yangshuo, famous for its other-worldly karst landscapes. Thanks to a group of ‘entrepreneurs,’ who bought hundreds of train tickets to re-sell at inflated prices, tickets for travel originating in Guangzhou could only be purchased here, not nationwide. Arriving into Guangzhou, the main train station looked more like a refugee village than the city’s premiere transport hub. On the square outside the entrance thousands of people loitered. Others slept under tents on the hard concrete. Helpers handed out free food, water and chairs. Such images I’d expect in ... read more