Delicious Dinners in Yangshuo

Last Thursday night, Courtney and I took a slightly harrowing, night bus ride from Guangzhou to Guilin with the aim of taking a smaller bus from Guilin to Yangshuo to hang out among the limestone karsts for a few nights (four to be exact). Courtney planned this section of the trip and wanted to see some more of iconic Southeastern China with the karsts and rice terraces that are often depicted in ancient, Chinese art. As luck would have it, I accidentally woke up to a sign that read "Yangshuo" about an hour outside of Guilin. We hustled off the bus around 5AM (we got on at 8:30PM and then the two bus drivers took a joint snooze for an hour and a half at a random bus stop around 3AM) and called the owner of the guesthouse we had booked so he could come pick us up.

 

After breakfast and a nap at the hostel, we took it easy the rest of the day as well as the day after when the temperatures climbed to 99 degrees (on top of the extreme humidity). We got up nice and early our third morning in Yangshuo for an early morning bike ride amongst the karsts. Much to our surprise, half of Yangshuo was also up with us riding bikes, running, and enjoying the early morning weather. This ended up being one of our favorite moments of the trip so far and it was well worth getting up at 6AM to go for a bike ride.

 

 

 

 

 

On our fourth morning, we took a bamboo raft (really blue PVC pipe) down the Li River from Yangshuo to Fuli to take in even more karsts. We were certainly not the only tourists out there in the morning--the river was alive and well with blue PVC rafts with large groups of mainly Chinese tourists. We got off at Fuli, a small town known for its fan-making and its bustling market. We bypassed the market which sells dog meat for consumption (I think in live form) but we checked out some of the fan factories along the way to the bus back to Yangshuo.

The real highlight, however, was the FOOD! For a nominal price, we opted to have breakfast and dinner at our guesthouse. The dinners were phenomenal and some of the best Chinese food I've ever had since they were all home cooked and not greasy. One of my favorite dishes was made with a peanut sauce similar to pad thai but all of them were incredible with lots of veggies and flavor.

 

Up Next: Longji Rice Terraces

Tips/Recommendations: STAY at Yangshuo Culture house if you get the chance. We spent four very relaxing and quiet nights with great food at this place. The owner, Wei, was an excellent host (although his directions outside of Yangshuo to the rice terraces were not spot on), he helped us with everything we needed in Yanghsuo--arranging the bamboo raft, renting the bikes, and getting us to and from the bus station.

 

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