October Golden Week in Yangshuo

Yangshuo is a picturesque town in the Guanxi province of southern China. It sits on the Li River and is tucked in among the thousands of dramatic karst peaks that cover this region.

Karst hills are what's left over when limestone rock formations have dissolved and, typically, the area around each one is completely flat, creating a landscape that looks littered with giant pimples growing out of the ground. Not far from here is the northern border with Vietnam and the famous karst hills of Halong Bay which rise majestically out the water and were so beautifully captured in the Oscar winning Indochine.

This natural landscape makes Yangshuo a huge draw for tourists from across the world particularly hikers, rock climbers and bikers as well as others - like us - who just want to hang out for a while in this pretty part of China. Tourism is Yangshuo's key business and the town is awash with souvenir shops (batik, silver jewelry, 'antiques'); travel agencies offering trips up and down the Li River; hotels/boarding houses and restaurants all carrying identical menus (full English breakfast, burgers, Chinese food). During the Chinese Golden Week holidays, Yangshuo heaves with tourists and feels like New Orleans during Mardi Gras - but without the beads.
Traffic jam on the Li River..

Over the years, we must have forgotten how to go somewhere and just relax..because we decided it would be a good idea to use this week to brush up on our Chinese. We enrolled in classes at the XiJie Foreign Language School of Yangshuo. Every morning for three hours our teacher - Amanda - newly arrived in Yangshuo from Hebei province, ('I came because I love water and mountains') took us through our paces. I filled a new exercise book full of vocabulary and dutifully highlighted the key words and phrases but when I got home I realised that 75% of the words were already in my old exercise book - I just hadn't remembered them first time around... damn that small left HG. Still, it was useful to practise ever day and devote yourself totally to it without work distractions.

Another successful graduate from the XiJie Foreign Language School

One of the highlights of the week was visiting our friend Pam who owns and runs the Yangshuo Cookery School - a business she set up in Chao Long, a village a few kms outside of Yangshuo - offering half day cooking classes to tourists. Absolutely brilliant! We spent a wonderful afternoon cooking a handful of Chinese classics (steamed stuffed vegetables, chicken with cashews, eggplant with soy & oyster sauce, beer fish and green vegetables with garlic) then eating it all sitting on her terrace overlooking the mountains and river and sipping local Yangshuo beer. Highly recommended.