What do you get for 20 Yuan? A pretty good destination. That's what.

Yangshuo. Where is Yangshuo? That's exactly what most of you would reply. Or well some of you might add in a few might add in a few extra words. But same context of the response. My prior knowledge of China growing up was pretty limited. All we really learnt of Chinese history growing up focused on the Great Wall, the Mongol Empire, and Genghis Khan. If I were to refer to something more modern in history I'd admit to knowledge of the opium wars and then the resulting treaty that virtually created Hong Kong. But heck when I was young and learning of China I had no understanding opium was a basically heroin, and the British were basically a bunch of olden day methheads in the 1840s.

Any description of China before this trip would omit any detailed understanding of the natural beauty of China. Sure I knew that pandas came from China. But it's only in recent times I even understood that you needed to go to Sichuan, and in particular Chengdu if you expect to visit them. The Yangtze or Yellow river might have rated a mention, but more for dam construction and nation building rather than natural beauty. However times are changing. And with the goal of pandas confirmed I needed a path towards them. This path would take me through one of the more beautiful regions of China, Yangshuo in the Guilin Province.

Visiting Yangshuo for me was the first time I have seen anything more than the big cities of China. After all my only previous trip to China visited only Shanghai. Here in Yangshuo the growing middle class of China was itself experiencing the explosion of wealth and leisure time. They were coming here in droves looking for a domestic destination to fulfil their insatiable appetite for travel. We in western countries were only now just starting to visit this place in larger numbers. The word is spreading that China still has some nature left, and it can be beautiful to see. Perhaps it helped that Bill Clinton visited in the 1990s.

Our guide for Yangshuo Chunping, or as we were to call her, Ping was extremely proud of Yangshuo. In fact she had turned her back on the big smoke to stay in Yangshuo as she loved the lifestyle it afforded her. Her first speech to us on the bus towards Yangshuo Ping highlighted a Chinese saying that our entry city to the region, Guilin, was the most beautiful place under heaven. But Yangshuo was more beautiful. For Ping the decision to stay here was also highlighted later when explaining the currency. If you want to earn the big dollars in China you need to go to the big cities. But it costs less if you want to find natural beauty. The big dollars in Chinese culture were the 100 and 50 Yuan notes. So these notes have pictures of historical places of significance. The Great Hall in Beijing, and the Tibetan Palace in Lhasa. The smaller notes have the natural beauty. Yangshuo and the Li River was the location depicted by the 20 Yuan note. Hence after researching my upcoming trip getting a photo in front of the point depicted on the 20 yuan note became a priority. The goal was achieved! 

However Yangshuo wasn't just a one night wonder on the way to Chengdu. Here we actually spent 4 nights. Admittedly the first night was a late arrival and then only dinner at a restaurant called Lucy's Place which cost us only 40 yuan each. Reality is we only spent enough time in Yangshuo to be travelling around comfortably without rushing the destination.

The first full day here was one of might eagerly anticipated events of the tour. The Cooking school. And well it didn't disappoint. First port of call of the lesson was the local markets. And well this included the surprise for me of the region. They sell dog meat in the markets. I'm sure I just freaked out many of you by merely placing this photo here, but sure enough they do sell and eat dog. I just don't eat dog. And well the presentation like a hanging glazed Beijing duck wasn't doing it for me. On reflection it probably should not have surprised me they eat dog in the region as we weren't really that far from Northern Vietnam. In Vietnam they ate dog mainly as a delicacy at weddings. Here the display suggested it need not be such a special night. These markets did though show off the great local vegetables, especially my favourite, their local eggplant. This we would experience quite frequently in the meals we'd have in this region. The garlic eggplant dishes we had in Yangshuo were the best.

Before leaving the markets I got to experience my first encounter with a more Chinese breakfast, or well one we westerners would find easier to adapt to from experience, the steamed bun. We stopped at a local bun seller who proceeded to sell us 2 buns for 3 yuan. or well about 70 cents. Through our cooking school guide I thought i asked for a pork bun, and an onion bun which was supposed to be sweet. I actually got handed some sort of red bean bun, and the chive bun due to my pointing. Sadly they looked better than they tasted, thereby failing to achieve satisfaction. Being steamed buns they were a pretty dry, and doughy experience. Not horrible. They just needed some moisture based filling to eat them. But this is what some locals do eat for breakfast. I wasn't totally disappointed though. After all we were heading back to go cook lunch, and my trying the buns was ticking off the experience list.

Cooking school was the standard tourist experience whereby the local cuisine is made to seem so easy. It would result in the future purchase of cooking ingredients back home, to then result in utter failure to replicate the success of the controlled environment. I accept this. Fortunately I eat a lot of Asian food and therefore should be able to utilise whatever ingredients i buy later before wasting any food or condiments. Thanks to the typed recipe leaflets I able to confirm we cooked Stuffed Mushrooms with Vegetables and Pork, Steamed Dumplings with the same Vegetables and Pork, Gong Bao Chicken, and Braised Eggplant with Garlic and Chili paste. We left the restaurant quite full, satisfied we were now masters of Chinese cuisine.

In the afternoon some went off for kayaking before the brave few returned for an early evening cupping massage. After previous year's Italian kayaking debacle I chose to have some down time exploring the city on foot instead. Although sore and tired thanks to not being 20 anymore, indications were it was just the cupping massage on offer, and not any regular massage, so I gave it a wide berth. And boy was I glad I did. It was not described as pleasant, nor enjoyable. And the marks, oh my. The Internet education of what these can look like, and how long they last is all true. I was looking at these 4 brave souls for the next few days with their massive welts on their backs and shoulders. They had provided me with great delight to see the result, without the personal pain of experience. They were like giant 3D chequerboards. You could read braille off their back like a horror story. My suggestion was that we could set them up at either ends of the train carriage and play team battleships on the next long rail journey. "D4, that's a hit". We all joined again for dinner that night at some place Home Cooking Restaurant recommended by our guide. Again this was again a great cheaper opportunity to experience a multitude of local dishes. This was okay but not as nice as the first night.
 
The 2nd full day was the big day of local trips. The morning saw us in our not to miss included activity for Yangshuo, the bicycle through the countryside with the bamboo rafting return down the river. This rafting experience was set up mainly for the tourists. Yet it doesn't disappoint. Also in the river they would traditionally conduct Cormorant Fishing. This is where they would train birds to catch fish in the water and return to the boat. Obviously the birds throats are tied up so they can't swallow the catch. However this ancient practise isn't done nowadays thanks to technology making fishing more efficient. It's now only a tourist photo. One we really didn't see. We did see people fishing from the shore only.

That afternoon was out trip to Moon Hill. Another tourist experience of nature involving a natural arch that you walk up a near vertical hill of stairs to get to. All a part of travel these hill climbs. Nature's way of saying you have to work before you get to experience great beauty. Funny moment occurred at the top of the hill where we were greeted by a bunch of entrepreneurial older ladies who had a business built around providing drink refreshments to the tourists who would climb up. Apparently whichever lady offers you drinks first seemed to take ownership of you. And if you look like a strong contender to buy a drink before leaving the upper area of 2 lookouts then you get extra attention in the form of a fan lady fanning you to cool down. I was definitely an owned commodity of great potential. My fan lady was busy fanning away, instructing me to see her after our groups return from a visit to the second viewing platform. After her great service i felt it rude not to accept buying the 5 yuan cold water.

From the Hill we moved onto the most unusual experience of my trip to Yangshuo the Cave, and mud baths. Our guide had warned is prior to the visit that sometimes the locals would try to take photos of us in the baths. That she would be there so shoo them away. What she had not anticipated was the fact that this place had become tourist central the day of our visit. There were tourist buses everywhere. With groups of streaming Chinese tourists bustling through the caves in a giant Congo line. At the end of the caves there were mud baths. These mud baths were portrayed in the tour guide as a not to miss experience. What was not covered in the trip guide was the fact that these bathes are just mud pits next to the walking tour path. And if you're a tour group of mainly female 20 to 30 year olds of European decent then you are like animals in zoo. And if you're a Chinese man in a tour group then you have no social understanding of the definition of a creeper. The number of times our guide had to stop them from lingering taking what they saw as bikini mud wrestling was amazing. And then they would also need active intervention to be stopped from filming, pushed to move on, from the mud rinsing off area at the end of the baths. Too many 1970s soft porn films on the Internet for the Chinese men it seemed. They wouldn't stop after being told once. Then needed multiple times telling off. They were shocking to be asked to keep moving. I exited earlier than most as I recognised my role in the tour group was that of big brother and it would take an angry bigger older foreign guy telling them to keep moving with a hand over their phone camera for them to get the message. Our 5 foot nothing Chinese guide just wasn't enough.

The final full day saw only a few go out to take on the rock climbing optional. This left most of us with the morning off to explore the city before returning for our day trip out to a local village. This local village trip experience had been created by a former guide as an opportunity to give the tourist a more local experience of country life, and then put some money into the local village through a local home dinner experience. They incorporated this trip into a visit to the Li River where we'd get our 20 Yuan note photo. So to me this was a must do. With photo completed we visited the family home sitting down to a dinner. Our entertainment though was quite the proud local. I believe it was the 5 year old daughter of the family whose home we were in. She had barely started school that week and was keen to take us through our first informal Chinese language class. After prodding from our guide with whom she was familiar with she was encouraged to overcome her shyness to take us through counting the numbers, and then reciting back some basic words like mother, father, and uncle. After this she then took a liking to me as the only guy in the group and wanted to show me her game. Noone could understand her rules, or her explanation. I proceeded to lose the game which as per most children's games lacked logic. But hey we had fun, and it put a smile on the child's face to be interacting with the tourists.

After our return there was time to walk the streets and even find some second dinner. Seemed some of us were still a bit peckish after our early evening village dinner. This time a cafe another had seen in a guide book. This was the venue of the best dish I had in China. Twice cooked Pork. It was fairly spicy with sliced Chili and not capsicum as I had thought they were when the plate arrived. But oh boy it was fantastic. Luckily they had removed all the chili seeds.

 

Our final morning in Yangshuo saw most of us wake up before down to conquer the small hill in town with the little temple like viewing tower. Alas some of us had attempted to find it days before and failed taking a wrong path and only ending up on a smaller hill during the heat of the afternoon. However at 5:30am we were missing the light of the dawn in an attempt to see a sunrise. We experienced success in a photo shoot but the heat haze would start early, and most of us left before waiting out the hope of an actual sun appearing. After all we needed to be packed and ready before 8am. Some wanted to find breakfast before. Which I had learnt from the morning before was quite hopeful. I could barely get bacon and eggs at 8:30am the morning before. Chinese people don't do mornings. Shops seem to only open at 10am if you're not at the markets. This morning departure had the extra complication of the major triathlon in the region. So instead of a pick up we had to carry our bags our to a pickup point the bus could access. Unfortunately this ended up a 2 km walk and not 500m as had been expected. Our path cutoff resulted in a major reversal and walk around. Oh my the swearing that came about one time when a few had reached breaking point, was quite the event. Understandable the frustration but there wasn't anything Ping could do. She had fortunately allowed an extra hour for departure. We used 45 minutes to make our escape. I think even Ping was getting flustered with the effort. And with that Yangshuo was over. Hopefully Ping does make it to Brisbane later this year. I've told her my place is here if she needs a place to stay and a local guide.