Guangxi - Yangzhou / Yangshou

Dear friends and travellers,

This is the first of several little “homage- blogs” to the beauty of the Guangxi Province of China, so please stop reading when it gets too patriotic (after having lived here for 10 days it starts feeling like home after all!).

Let’s start with Yangzhou: once upon a time there was a sleepy little village situated and sheltered by beautiful mountains and a river. But there was one mountain called the “Moon Hill Mountain”, which was ambitious and selfish, and wanted to be seen by everyone. So it called up the tourist information of all major Chinese cities and told them to send their people over, which they did! There are loads of trendy Chinese people travelling long ways to visit this beautiful place, which has so much to offer: a beautiful countryside which can be explored by (rental) push bikes, beautiful nature caves and obviously the climbing of Moon Hill (breath-taking view!). On top of that you can take boat/ rafting tours on the beautiful Li River.

We can particularly recommend using a local guide to show you to the real country side. Our guide was a lovely, slightly crazy woman called Mo, who speaks English fairly well, and makes sure you learn about everything there is to learn. On top of that she might cook a lovely meal for you if you get lucky! Her email address is moshefeng@yahoo.com.cn and phone number: +86-13788437378. She will charge you 100 Yuan per day, and she is worth every single one of them! Although we had haggled her down to 90 Yuan, we ended up tipping her so much she actually made more profit than expected.

Be aware of local fragile old ladies selling drinks when you climb mountains and in general. After you have said that you DON’T want to buy a drink from them, they will ask “Maybe later?” and you will probably say “Yes” just to get rid of them. Unfortunately, you will achieve the very opposite! They will follow you up the mountain until you have bought a drink! So please do say NO or use the Chinese “BU YAO” (literally don’t want) and good luck in getting rid of them!

Accommodation is quite cheap in Yangzhou and you are in a good haggling position, since there are sooo many hotels and hostels. Most hotels are situated on West Street, which you can’t miss since the place really is a “one-street-place”. Most of the action takes place on this very street.

For those of you interested in a buzzing night-life, this is definitely THE place to be! Both Chinese and people from all over the world party here together – especially on weekends – most of the night long!

Food-wise one can find a lot of yummy European and Chinese dishes. So if you miss bread and jam, make sure you have breakfast at one of the Café’s on West Street (less costly than normal restaurants). Very good fresh coffee can be found for bean-worshippers!

If you are looking for very cheap accommodation and/ or the quickest internet connection in town, go to Lisa’s situated at the end of West Street on your right (coming from the bus station). Enjoy!