Yonderful Yangshuo

We arrived in Yangshuo late at night and didn’t notice the spectacular view right outside our hotel window until the next morning.  Wow!  Surrounding us were beautiful karst limestone mountains soaring up into the sky and the Li River.  The first thing we did was explore Yangshuo town itself, which is very quaint with its cobbled pavements and narrow streets.  We immediately noticed that the town had a very laid back vibe which was in contrast to the other cities that we had visited in China.

Later that day, we decided to rent some bicycles from the hotel and explore the local countryside.  The lady at the hotel showed us on the map the best route to take that would have us back in Yangshuo before dark.  So off we went.  The local landscape was simply stunning.  The mountains were all around us; there were rice paddies that stretched for miles and miles; the local people were working in the fields with the most basic farming equipment; there were cattle and buffalo grazing in the fields or wandering along the roads.  We cycled for about an hour, when we came to the point in the track that met the main road that led us back to town; or so we thought.  We cycled for another 10km but there was still no sign of Yangshuo.  We were most definitely lost!  Eventually we asked an old man who pointed back in the direction we had just come from.  After cycling back the way we came, we met a cross roads that said Yangshuo was a further 10km again!  At this point it was nearly dark and to make matters worse it was raining.  There were no lights on the bicycles and the roads weren’t lit.  We pedaled as fast as we could and hoped for the best.  We made it back in lightning speed, like two drowned rats and completely baffled at how we managed to get it so wrong.

The next day we decided to try round two of cycling journeys through the Yangshuo countryside.  There are lots of caves in the locality so we said we would cycle out to one of them which boasted to have a mud pool.  We arrived without any mishap – so far, so good!  The caves were really great.  The guide brought us around, showing us formations that looked like random things such as turtles, butterflies or curtains.  Then came the main event, the mud bath.  We had no idea what to expect but we just hopped right in.  Well, it was cold and muddy, but a great exfoliant.  People pay a lot of money at home for a mud wrap, but we got it for a whopping €8!  We covered ourselves in it and splashed around and had a great time.  But then there was more.  After the mud bath we walked a bit further into the cave to a natural spring underground waterfall.  Here we got the opportunity to wash the muck off because it was everywhere.  Around the corner from the waterfall was natural hot springs.  This was the icing on the cake!  We soaked ourselves in the hot water and rested our weary bones and muscles.  It’s a tough life!

When we were in the caves we got chatting to 4 students from Cambridge University.  Similar to us, they planned to cycle around the countryside after the caves, so they asked us to join them.  One of the students was actually Chinese who had moved to the UK five years ago.  He spoke the language so we thought nothing could possibly go wrong and how could we ever get lost.  Our hopes were shortlived!  We spent a great few hours cycling around, having great laughs with the gang.  Every now and then Gao (the Chinese guy) would stop and have a quick chat with the locals to make sure we were on the right track.  However, at one point on the track, we were very unsure where to go next and Gao asked an old lady.  Well, within one minute there was a full blown shouting match going on!  The rest of us were just looking at each other wondering what had provoked such madness.  It was really spectacle to watch these two Chinese people going at each other’s throats.  It later transpired that the old lady wouldn’t tell us anything unless we agreed to buy a trip down the river on a bamboo raft.  There’s always a catch behind the niceties!  Off we went ourselves, leaving the bamboo lady behind.  Eventually we came to a river and could go no further.  An executive decision was made that we would do the “sensible” thing and wade across the river whilst carrying our bicycles.  We did manage to get across; no one fell down the small waterfall that was to the right of us as we walked across; we just had wet feet and a bit of a laugh afterwards.

Debating with the locals

Comtemplating the next move

The gang, after wading the river 

That evening we met the students for dinner.  They introduced us to Chinese rice wine – big mistake!  We went to a Chinese restaurant where Gao took the liberty of ordering a selection of dishes and local specialties for us all to share.  Along with beef and pork dishes, we also had snails, beer fish (fish cooked in beer) and dog.  Dog is a favourite among the locals and we each had a piece or two each.  It tasted rather strong, along the same lines as venison.  However, Rob and I couldn’t stop thinking of Rover or Toby and it felt wrong to us psychologically.  At least we can say we tried it though.

The following day we decided not to venture out on the bikes, but said we would treat ourselves to Chinese massage.  This was Rob’s first massage and I don’t think he came out a convert.  I think his back is better though.  I’m still all for it despite the pain and agony at the time!



What really happened the night before...we got very drunk from drinking rice wine, well it was more Claire really.  Rob carried/dragged Claire home with great difficulties, all the while being called "Blob" and "Sob" by his beloved.  He has the patience of a saint!  So the reality is that we were very very hungover the next day.

The area around Yangshuo has lots of rivers and none more famous than the Li River.  Lots of cruise boats travel up and down daily from Guilin and back carrying the masses of Chinese tourists.  Rob and I decided to skip that bit of the trip but get a bamboo raft between the two most scenic areas on this journey, Yangdi and Xinping.  To get to Yangdi we had to travel by local bus.  This time it was uneventful.  The journey along the river was spectacular.  The scenary was simply stunning.  Given the beauty of the area, there is a picture of the landscape on the Chinese 20 yuan note.  Our boat driver was very proud to show it the exact spot on the river that corresponds to the picture.

Along the Li River

Looks like a person's face whilst lying down

Cattle grazing by the river while their owners look on

Buffalo crossing

Scene of the 20 yuan note

There is also another river, which is much smaller called the Yangxi river, which boasts scenary as good as the Li River.  We also took a bamboo raft down this river for about 2 hours.  Halfway, our punter decided that it was his lunchtime, stopped the boat at a small restaurant on a pontoon in the middle of the river and sat down to have his lunch and a beer.  Another bizarre moment in China!

Bamboo rafts

Along the Yangxi river

On our final day in Yangshuo we decided to hike up Moon Hill.  It is so called because at the top there is a big hole in the mountain that looks like the moon!  There must have been some rice wine still left in our systems because we sweated and huffed and puffed and panted up that Hill.  The exertion was definitely worth it though because we were treated to a 360 degree view of the entire countryside.  It was amazing.  What was also amazing is that 70 and 80 year old women climb this Hill everyday hoping to sell water or soft drinks to the parched tourists that make it to the top.  Incredible!

VERY hot and bothered

No sweat Rob!

Nearly there?...no not quite



View from the top of the mountain

Selfie of relief

Dragon Claire strikes again

Now we're there

We were so sorry to be leaving Yanghsuo that night.  We enjoyed the laid back feel of the place, the hotel we were staying at, the super friendly staff and the great adventures that we had.  As we boarded our night bus to Shenzhen we both agreed that would definitely have stayed longer if we had time.  But Hong Kong lay in wait…

Chengdu - Panda City

We arrived in Chengdu late at night and checked into what we both agreed was the nicest Holiday Inn we had ever stayed in.  Our room had a beautiful view of the city lights.  Chinese cities love neon at nighttime!

Hotel view

Panda mosaic mural

Our main purpose for coming to Chengdu was to visit the Panda Research Centre and Sanctuary.  Pandas are one of the most endangered animals in the world and the sanctuary also acts as a breeding ground in order to increase the population.  Pandas are most active in the morning, before it gets too hot, so with that in mind, we set off at 8am hoping to see more than a few pandas.  We weren’t disappointed!  When we arrived, feeding time had just begun so there was lots of activity at the various different enclosures.  Each enclosure housed pandas in a different lifecycle, so we saw infant and mother pandas, male pandas and teenage pandas.  It was something really special to see such an endangered animal being cared for so well and the antics they got up to.  One of the pandas fancied himself as an acrobat and treated us to a little show which stopped abruptly when breakfast arrived!

 

We also saw newborn pandas that were only 3 weeks old.  They were being cared for in incubators and were no larger than the palm of your hand.  Newborn pandas look like skinned rabbits and their mothers often reject them at birth because they are frightened by how they look.  We were shown a video of one mother who was hitting and sliding her newborn around the place because she didn’t like the way it looked.  Eventually most mothers come around and are eager to care for their children.  However, some of them do not get over the initial fright and will have nothing to do with their child.  In those cases the newborn is either raised by humans or by another panda bear.

The whole experience at the sanctuary was great.  The setup was excellent, which huge enclosures, both indoors and outdoors for the animals.  The information on the pandas was really comprehensive and in English!

Red pandas

It was also worth the early start as by 10.30am the pandas started to go inside to the cooler climes.  I wouldn’t blame them as Chengdu was incredibly hot.  In fact it was like an oven.  I don’t think we had encountered such heat since India.  Every day the temperature was in the high 40s.  We later found out that the region was in the middle of a heat wave.  We also stayed indoors a lot and didn’t do much else in Chengdu other than chilling out and looking for nice places to eat!  We enjoyed the break after the hectic previous two weeks.

Xi'an - On yer bike!

Our journey to Xi’an was Rob’s first venture on a sleeper train (well one that has beds on it).  Claire was old-hat with the sleeper experience after her Inter-railing adventures a few years back.  Fortunately, this time we weren’t confined to the third-class steerage carriages, jigging around with the locals, but managed to secure ourselves two first-class soft sleeper beds.  These are difficult to come by as they sell out very quickly so we thanked our lucky stars as we boarded the cabin.  We were sharing with a cute elderly couple who enjoyed staring at us for a long period of time, while we smiled back at them.  Once they decided there was nothing more to look at, they turned in for the evening!  We actually managed more than a few hours sleep on the 20 hour journey but still managed to wake up more than a little bleary eyed.  In the meantime, something had come over our cabin-mates and they were full of chatter while we, again, smiled and nodded back at them.  Eventually we understood that they were asking us where we were from.  “Ireeesh”, they repeated back to us, delighted.  Through a series of hand gestures and a game of charades they also asked us if we had slept well and wished us well on our journey.  Easy!

We came to Xi’an to visit the Army of the Terracotta Warriors.  This is literally an army of soldiers, horses and chariots carved out of terracotta, which was discovered about forty years ago.  One of the marvellous and most impressive things about the army is that no soldier’s face is alike.  The level of detail is actually astounding down to their expressions, clothing, armour and hairstyles.  This lifesize army was the brainchild of an emperor who wanted protection in the afterlife.  We wandered around each pit, taking in the sights.  However, despite everything we had heard, read and seen regarding the Terracotta Warriors, we weren’t blown away by them.  Don’t get me wrong, we weren’t disappointed; our jaws just didn’t drop with what we saw. 

Terracotta Warrior

Army of Terracotta Soldiers

Terracotta Horses

We were glad to have made to journey out to see the army and our trip back into Xi’an was particularly entertaining.  We hopped on a public bus, which after about the fourth stop was full.  That didn’t stop the bus conductor (a no nonsense young lady) from squeezing more people on and more people and even more people.  When the people jammed in the aisle wouldn’t move back any more she would literally tickle them until they stampeded to the back of the bus (hilarious).  People were practically sitting on our laps, so we were glad to have gotten a seat!  The funny thing though, was that everyone was in good spirits.  Nobody was grumbling or complaining about having to stand or being squashed and no one even batted an eyelid when there was an impromptu petrol stop halfway to our destination or when the bus driver picked up his wife.  It was bizarre and another true experience of real China.

We also toured around the city of Xi’an and we visited another Bell Tower and Drum Tower, similar to what we saw in Beijing.  Here we were treated to another drum show which was excellent.  Xi’an is one of the few cities in China where the old city walls are still standing.  They surround the city centre with a perimeter of 14km so one afternoon, Rob and I hopped on a tandem and spent a few hours cycling on top of the walls.  It was great fun and without doubt another highlight of the trip so far.  My, they are piling up!

The drum show



Xi'an Bell Tower - a glorified roundabout!

Xi'an Bell Tower

On yer bike!

On our final day, we decided that we would check out the World Horticultural Expo which was being held in Xi’an this year, before catching our flight to Chengdu.  It was a Saturday - need I say more?  It was packed with people.  We battled the crowds for the afternoon and made our way around the giant expo site.  We visited some very cool exhibitions by different countries from around the world, but the most impressive area was the one dedicated to traditional Chinese gardens from different provinces around the country.

Papped again!

Giant pagoda

The journeys to and from the Expo were adventures in themselves.  We got instructions from the hotel concierge on what bus to take, but naturally we got on the wrong one!  The locals realised that we had gone wrong when we showed them Expo written in Mandarin.  They gestured to us that this was the wrong bus but told us to stay on until we reached a stop where we could get the correct bus, all the while smiling at us.  When we reached a connecting station, two of the locals got off with us and waited until the right bus came along for us.  They were so helpful and it was so lovely to see the contrast in the people from what I described in the Beijing blog.

On our way back, we headed off to the bus parking lot.  It was crowded with people and the queue for our bus snaked up and down and up and down.  We couldn’t believe our eyes, especially with a plane to catch.  Sighing heavily, we got in line.  In our wisdom, we had no water, we hadn’t eaten since our banana breakfast and it was very hot.  We queued for 2 hours.  What we didn’t initially understand was that there were two queues, one to sit on the bus and one to stand.  We were waiting in the line for seats on the bus.  While it did move significantly slower than the line to stand, when we got on the bus, we were so glad not to be standing as the journey took a very hot and sweaty 90 minutes and dropped us over a mile away from our hotel.  We raced back to hop in a taxi to the airport, hoping there was a McDonald’s there but had to settle for a toasted cheese sandwich instead!

Xi'an tandem selfie!