Yangshuo

Yangshuo has some of the most amazing scenery around and also boasts a tonne of character. To get a chance to see more of it, we spent the day walking around town, and exploring some of the parks as well as the little known back alleys off the main tourist strips.

We have been told that Yanshuo has less than 700,000 people living in the town and surrounding countryside, but that it has more than 15 million visitors  a year. The economy is focused entirely on tourism, and everywhere you go on the main strips you are greeted by countless people saying “hello Bamboo,”  “Hello, Light show” “hello, you look,” etc. We have learned that a firm “bu yao” (don’t want) and a slight smile is the best way to get them to leave you alone. However, even armed with this knowledge and a reasonable level of patience, walking on some streets can fry the nerves.

A typical Ynagshou Street

An artsy shot from the Pagoda on top of "Man Hill"

Paul let Kristen climb out to an unsafe spot without peeing his pants, this is a first!

Posting out

Zoom in on this one and look over Kristen's left shoulder you will see an entire skinned dog hanging upside down, yes it is for sale, no Kristen didn't throw up, but it was close.

Baby chickens are allowed to run free on the streets.

Paul with the Urine smelling tea.

To get away from this, we climbed one of the hills in town (Man Hill- so called because it is supposed to look like a man bowing towards another hill... known as Lady Hill. Go figure.). It was raining slightly, and the marble steps up the hill were slick, so very few other people were venturing up with us. Also the guide books all steer people towards the more accessible (and expensive) parks around the wharves where the tourist boats park. It was wonderful to see the city and surrounding hills from such a great vantage point, and fantastic to have it to ourselves.

From there, we wandered around back roads and through the farmers market. It was a bit of a shock to see skinned dogs and snakes (even though we have seen them on the menus around town). There were buckets of live eels, crayfish, frogs, fish, snails and the like all over, and weird and wonderful fruits and vegetables. We didn’t stay too long (Kristen wasn’t too excited about looking at dead dogs) and didn’t really get any pictures (we got dirty looks every time we even thought about taking out our camera) but we did buy a big bag of tea from a cute little old lady at one stall.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing, getting foot massages, enjoying the view from our hotel room and exploring the night market, looking at the “antiques,” jade, t-shirts, crafts, and local fashions.