Yangshao itself is a bizarre place and probably one of the best places to highlight the two extremes of China. It has incredibly stunning scenery, surrounded by jutting out mountains and rocks with activities like rock climbing and bamboo river rafting where you can get up close to the natural wonders. The once sleepy fishing village that was the town is now a lively town full of restaurants, bars and activities, with loud karaoke blaring out in the evenings and lots of neon signage. It is a very popular tourist destination in China and somewhere that is considered a backpacker hotspot. There were lots of different areas and activities to explore, which was great as we were there for the longest time as a destination on the China tour. We bought some cheap pot noodles to have for breakfast from a local shop and devoured these before starting our jam packed day doing different activities.
As part of our tour we had a variety of included unmissable activities (that the whole group par took in), and optional activities to choose from (that were either included in our tour price or not). Surprisingly most activities were included and these were decent experiences. It also gave us the opportunity to split up and do things each of us would rather do with other people. Our first morning in Yangshao we got our first taste of activities, with me literally choosing to in a cooking course, with a lot of the tour group whilst Dave chose to go with the active group to do rock climbing.
Prior to our cooking lessons we first ventured to the local food market to pick up ingredients and to see what the food markets were like in Yangshao. For the most part this looked like many of the other open food markets of asia with lots of exotic produce laid out in front of vendours on the street and meats out in the open air or in the market hall. The difference with Yangshao food market was that there was a bit where the tour guide had to offer a warning, as there were live cage produce, some of which were very skinny, barely recognisable small dogs. It is apparently one of the last places in China that still continue to eat dogs, something that began due to poverty initially. Understandably many of our group left or chose not to see this as it is not accepted in western culture. There was also lots of other produce that we hadn’t seen as frequently- lots of river seafood, insects, turtles, rabbits. There was a spectrum of scarred within the group but it gave us lots to talk about as we made our way to the cooking studio at Cloud 9. Safe to say people were wary ordering meat dishes at times in China as you were never quite sure what you would get, but that is also part of the fun!
Each of us had a station this time with big hot woks and fresh, delicious ingredients. Donning our bright yellow aprons, chefs hats and grasping our cleavers we set about prepping our vegetables, mixing our sauces and then flash frying ingredients in our searingly hot woks. By the end of the session we had made a light cucumber salad, sweet and sour pork (catering to the western palate), a vegetable noodle dish and best of all our own mouth watering Chinese dumplings. We were suitably stuffed at lunchtime after eating it all and taking leftovers back to dave.
Whilst we had been whipping up a Chinese feast, Dave and several of the group had gone rock climbing. Yangshao is a premium destination for rock climbing…
After the mornings activities we joined back up as a group for one of the unmissable activities. This involved us all clambering onto bikes and cycles around Yangshao, getting to see some of the beautiful scenary of Yangshao- stunning fields, rock outcrops covered in vegetation and serene rivers carving their way through the landscape. The landscape was mirrored in the still river and it looked gorgeous. Eventually we made our way to the start of our bamboo raft experience. In pairs we boarded little bamboo rafts with small bamboo chairs and got on our life jackets. Each one had a man guiding and steering its way down the river. We were thoroughly looking forward to a peaceful meander down the river, absorbing all of the natural wonder. Unfortunately this was ruined a bit by our guide speaking and shouting at a very loud volume to the other guides. It was painfully loud and we were glad to have finished. It was a fun experience despite this, with even being taken down short dips and low rapids. For some of the others in our group though this meant getting stuck and beached on rocks at times, as the water level was quite low and it depended on luck and how good the guide was. As we disembarked our boats the sun was starting to set with the warm glow of golden hour lighting up the river and our bike journey back through town.
We freshened up after our bike journey back at the hostel and hung out with some of the girls we were sharing a dorm with, starting to get to know people a bit. Once we were hungry enough we went with some of them and got some dinner at a local stir-fry restaurant that one of them had eaten at the day before (veg with noodles/rice 12 yuan, meat 15 yuan). We continued chatting over a beer and food before heading back to join some of the group for the evening activity. As most of the group were going we decided to join them to watch the night cormorant fishing. This is a traditional way of using the cormorant to fish, where an elastic band is placed around their necks so they cant swallow the fish they catch. We journeyed up the Yulong river on another bamboo raft to see the fisherman using the cormorants, dressed in their bamboo hats. None of us were quite sure what to make of the experience, sat in the dark watching this by torchlight. At the end one of the girls volunteered to wear the hat and hold the cormorant but this was definitely not something she looked comfortable actually doing. This was a very brief activity and we were all happy about that. After a very long day we were tired but ended up going out for a cocktail with some of the Irish girls from the group. We went back to the hostel after one but they ended up having quite the evening partying out in Yangshao.
We made the most of having some free time the following morning by heading out with people from our dorm (Gemma L, Jacqueline, Danielle and Lex) to wander around the town. We made our way to the local park where we took in the local old men playing cards, smoking and selling trinkets as well as the peaceful river, flowers and scenary. As it was scorchingly hot we got ourselves an iced coffee (25 yuan) whilst we walked around the town looking at the lovely architecture of local buildings and local Starbucks adorning the edge of the lake, surrounded by the mountains in the background. We mooched around looking at all the different street food vendors and local snacks, having a savoury filled pancake snack (7 yuan) for lunch before cooling off with an ice-cold beer.
In the afternoon Dave and Juan (the only boys) decided to stay behind whilst the rest of us girls went on the optional activity of the moon hill walk and water Buddha cave. We took the minibus to the bottom of the moon hill and then all of us made the descent, up a lot of stairs in the afternoon heat to the top of moonhill. I don’t do uphill and heat well but thankfully there was enough of us where I could happily be middle of the pack and enjoy talking with the others rather than feel like I was lagging behind and dying. We eventually got to the top where we stood under the moon hill, a big expanse of rock that had a semi circle shape naturally out of the middle of it. There were incredible views of the countryside and the town below, which made the climb up worth it. We were also excited about heading to the water cave next, which we knew contained mud baths and hot springs to relax in. The water Buddha cave ended up being a 5 km cave complex which was very humid and felt suffocating at times. It was also impressive but lit up with bright coloured light bulbs which made it look quite tacky, rather than highlighting the natural wonder of the different formations. After what felt like journeying into the centre of the earth we entered a dark cave with a mud bath. We all got into our bikinis and got into the mud bath. This happened to be knee deep and also right next to the general flow of traffic so we were very aware of being stared out by lots of leering Chinese men, as there were about 15 of us. We turned this into a fun, shared experience though, with us all bonding over the uncomfort and eventually getting ourselves covered in the mud. We had to jump into one of the showers, which was an experience in itself as the mud did not want to come off, before entering the hot spring. This also ended up being very shallow and we had to lay down flat to get into the water. We then got the bus back into the town where Dave and I went out for dinner by ourselves for some egg fried rice and dumplings. In the evening it was relaxed beers and cards at the hostel.
With our free time the next morning we had a relaxed start to the day, grabbing coffee and breakfast at Starbucks (54) before wandering in and out of different shops in town. Following this we went for a stroll along the path next to the Li river and the streets adjacent to it. It was a gorgeous day with the sun shining down, the river highlighted by the karsts rising into the sky behind it. We watched as some local women washed items in the river and found some local men dosing by the river hidden by their bamboo hats. Exploring this part of town we found a wonderful looking coffee shop (Espresso Roasted Coffee Shop), with their big roasting machine in the doorway and tasty aromas trailing out of the door. We stopped there to refuel before heading back to meet the group. In the afternoon we headed out on the bus, as we were off to our guide Sally’s family village. On the way we stopped off in Xing Ping to use the rest room and to see the site of one of the Yuan notes. The rest room situation, was one of the most horrific bathrooms I have ever been in. I was nearly sick entering the place and is still probably the worst, most unhygienic bathroom on the entire trip. After several of us being very scarred by this, we were glad to wander around in the fresh air for a minute whilst Sally walked us to see the viewpoint of Xing Ping on the 20 Yuan note which was stunning. We were only there a few minutes before we were back on the bus winding our way into the rural countryside. On the way we also made a stop to get some drinks, gifts and as it was nearly firework night, fireworks for the evening at Sally’s stopping at a local town and market to see what we could find. We were dropped off at Sally’s uncles house where we met her very cute niece. As it was a gloriously sunny day we went on a long walk winding our way up the tracks, through the village and to Sally’s mums house. Both on the walk and in her house she shared stories of growing up, what it was like, how she used to walk to hours for school but also the improvements that have been made for small rural communities to be able to connect them more easily to main towns and to provide actual homes. When we arrived in her mum’s house we all gathered around in her front room where we were provided with locally grown pomello and nuts, whilst we asked questions and chatted with Sally and her mum, with Sally acting as a translator. Before we lost the light we walked back to Sally’s uncle's house. There we were treated to a feast, with lots of different dishes having been cooked, we had drinks and enjoyed the company of each other whilst also playing with Sally’s niece. We finished up the evening with a fireworks spectacular before heading back to the hostel after a very unique, wholesome and interesting day.
The last morning in Yangshuo we got up really early to try to watch the sunrise over the li river. Unfortunately, we picked the cloudy day and the sun didn’t ever really appear. After grabbing a quick McDonalds breakfast we headed back to the hostel to get all our luggage together. Soon after, we were on the bus for a few hours travelling to the train station ready to take our first night train to Chengdu.
Alex
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