Blogs from Yangshuo, Guangxi, China, Asia - page 4

We set off to explore damp but bustling Yangshuo, a small town on the Li River surrounded by beautiful karst mountains and paddy fields, in Guangxi province. Until the late 1980s it was just a little rural marketplace but then the tourists started to arrive in Yangshuo at the end of their cruise from Guillin. The place became very popular and is now something of a tourist gem with plentiful restaurants and activities on offer. Sadly this means that omnipresent McDonalds and KFC dominate part of the entrance to the main town centre. Side-stepping these mingers we picked a far more salubrious restaurant for brunch. The circular tables all had 'lazy Susans' for rotating the shared dishes. Dennis teaches us some more Chinese to use when in restaurants. So we learn you have to literally SHOUT ... read more

Yangshuo Aka Western backpacker heaven. Yangshuo is an outdoors enthusiasts dreamworld. It's located 40 km downstream from Guilin where the Yulong joins the Li River. Popular activities include bike riding, rock climbing, river hiking, rafting, cave exploring, and kayaking. Just outside of Yangshuo are countless farming villages all within a half-day's bike ride. The roads are not very well signed so it's pretty common for people to ask the local for directions. This place was awesome. 3 days just wasn't enough time to enjoy all that Yangshuo had to offer. I wish I could have stayed here longer. In fact, almost everyone I've talked to since has said Yangshuo was the highlight of their trip and that they too wish they could've stayed there longer! Simply put, it's amazing. The restaurants of Yangshuo feature Chinese and ... read more

It was an easy decision to decide to spend the Chinese New Year holiday break in the pretty town of Yangshuo. Months ago I booked accommodation at the Yangshuo Village Retreat which is actually in a small village a couple of kilometres from the bustle of tourism in Yangshuo itself. Leaving Guilin by bus we were hit by the first 'tourist' scam of the trip. As we approached the bus station a busboy greeted us on the footpath with 'Yangshuo?' And at our nods proceeded to lead us through the rows of buses to the Yangshuo bus - all very usual for a Chinese bus station. However after loading our bags aboard it came up with a sheaf of tickets and told us the price was 200 yuan each and the bus would go soon. Knowing ... read more

Chapter 4 ‘Bro-Ho Yangshuo’: Where Malia meets Mountains The week after Mulan Shan flew over; we were all excitedly anticipating October Festival (celebrated on the first full moon of October I think). We’d been gradually booking up to travel to Yangshuo for this festival over the past few weeks, since it was the holidays we knew accommodation and train tickets would sell out fast. I don’t know if you all saw the pictures of the Great Wall at the beginning of October? These photos actually made British news and showed just how many people travel during the holidays. It’s quite an experience booking train tickets in China, they are released 12 days before each travelling date but for holidays this changes and is 15 days (I think)… Anyway Lauren and Dave attempted to get our train ... read more

Yangshuo was our favourite place in the whole of China, by quite some considerate distance. There's no doubting you're still in China, but finally there's the carefree feel, wealth of activities, and eating and drinking options of a south-east Asian travellers destination. Not to mention scenery that eats the typical south-east Asian travellers destinations like a banana pancake for breakfast. The signs were good from the start, our flight from Shanghai to Guilin was, like our previous Chinese flight, very comfortable. We then walked straight out of Guilin airport and onto the last two seats on a bus into town. As with every other bus journey in China, we were to the intense interest of the other occupants, being the only westerners onboard. This was exacerbated as those last two seats weren't together. My seat buddy ... read more