Yangshuo | Guangxi Province
Our next stop is Yangshuo (Guilin) in the neighbouring province of Guangxi. I was told Dave broke down here 14 years ago after only eating (increasingly spicy) Chinese food for nearly a week and had to eat pizza. We have enjoyed the food a lot more this time round but certainly wouldn’t say no to a slice of pizza right now!

After a 12hr sleeper train, a taxi transfer between arrival and departure train stations, a 1hr bullet train, a tuk-tuk to the bus station, 1hr bus ride, we have arrived at our accommodation in hot Yangshuo (35° C). A hostel with a cake/bakery shop and a pool overlooking the karst scenery.

In order to fully explore the region and its karst landscape, we decided to rent mountain bikes. First ride was down to the Moon Hill, 10km away crossing over from one end of Yangshuo to the other with the crazy Chinese traffic in the heat. Arrived safe, albeit a bit sweaty we walked up this hill for a nice view and the hill itself is rather odd. A half moon-shaped hole in the rock with stalactites hanging from it.


We then continued our bicycle ride at a leisurely pace along the Yulong river upstream to the Dragon Bridge, passing by villages, locals attending their crops or walking a water buffalo.

The bridge was a bit disappointing but the cycle there was wonderful. We relaxed with market stall fruits and watched the bamboo rafts go by. Since arriving in China, this is also the first time we get hassled to constantly buy water, coca cola or flower decorations, mostly by elderly women. They are very persistent so Michèle ended up paying 1 Yuan for a pointless although beautifully crafted flower hair decoration.



We then returned to Yangshuo cycling through the hills and some small villages tucked away from the normal tourist route for a different perspective on the countryside and life here.

One of the things we wanted to do while in China is attending a cooking class. Highly recommended was the Yangshuo cooking school so we booked the morning session. We started the cooking lesson by visiting a local market and learn about the local food we have never seen let alone heard of (young ginger, sweet potato leaves, winter melon etc.). Dave also checked out the meat section where live animals are kept in cages awaiting their fate.




After a brief introduction into the various produce, we started cooking. Dish by dish, 5 in total as below:
- Eggplant in Yangshuo style
- Steamed stuffed (minced pork) vegetables
- Beer fish (Pijiu Yu), a local dish
- Chicken with cashnew nuts
- Green vegetables with garlic


All of the dishes turned out very well and super tasty. None of them were too complicated or featured too many ingredients, so we feel like we can cook some of them back home, especially the aubergine dish. Most dishes are based on garlic, ginger, chilli, soya or oyster sauce, salt and pepper.



The rest of our time here in Yangshuo was spent relaxing at the pool, reading, planning our onwards trip to Yunnan province from Macau, eating fresh fruits from the street market (mango and grapes were especially very tasty), wandering around the town and sampling local cuisine such as beer fish and stuffed snails.


