Guangxi Province: Yangshuo

In mid-June I took a trip to Guangxi province in Southern China. You can see it on the map below, circled in red.


I actually received the invitation to go several weeks before the trip but, financially, didn't know how I could swing it. So, on the Wednesday before the weekend trip my friend, Echo, called me up and said, "I'm buying you a plane ticket...see you in a few days!" She's so sweet! I was especially excited because I knew that Mark and Ari-Anne Fuctman were planning to be there...both of whom I was friends with in college. Mark and I went to Hangzhou together for study abroad our junior year and all three of us worked at a summer camp together after our senior year. I was really excited to catch up with them since I hadn't seen them since their wedding several years ago.

So, I traveled all day Friday and finally found them that evening where we spent some time just catching up on life. The next day we rented bikes and took a bike trip through the mountains right outside of Yangshuo. Being in Yangshuo was really different for me because it is such a tourist city...I hardly felt like I was in China, there were so many white faces! Here are some pictures from the bike ride.



After the bike ride we partnered up and got on some bamboo boats. Each boat had two seats and a guy in the back who row, row, rowed the boat. We coasted down the Li River at a very leisurely pace for about 2 hours - long enough for us fair-skinned ones to get totally fried! It was really beautiful, though, and there were a bunch of little waterfalls that we went down which provided us with a way to cool down a bit. We even stopped at some weighted-down rafts along the way to eat some fresh fish and buy pictures that were taken as we went down the waterfalls. It was so fun and was something that I'd never done before so I was happy for the new experience. Check out the pictures of the boating trip!



That night we went to a light show but we were all totally exhausted! The Yangshuo heat in June is unbearable...I don't think I've ever been that hot in my entire life. The kind of hot where you walk outside and you instantly have "back of the neck stickiness." Gross. It's nearly impossible to cool down! So, take my advice...if you go to Yangshuo, don't go in the summer!

The next day we went to see some other cultural sites but we were all kind of tired of battling the heat so we spent a lot of the afternoon playing Mah jong indoors where it was cooler! That night Echo and I left and Mark and Ari stayed one more night before going further south to do some backpacking. It was so awesome to see them!