Yangshuo Days 6 and 7

Our last 24 hours in Yangshuo were mostly spent sitting on our still semi-sore bums on a bus. We traveled through Yangshuo, passed Guilin (the “big city”), and over many, many mountains until we made it to the Dragon’s Backbone Rice Terraces. The drive out was about three hours long. We had a pit stop in a small village at the bottom of the mountain called The Longhair Village. Because everything in China is a sales-pitch, you had to pay extra money to actually enter the village so Theresa and I decided to skip the ladies with the crazy long hair and we sat around while we waited for the rest of our tour group to finish. While waiting we ate a local delicacy, bamboo rice. It was sticky rice with pork and peanuts cooked inside of a bamboo shoot. It was actually pretty yummy. We even fed some to a local (possibly stray) dog who was in need of some TLC. There was another scary, death bridge. This one was far lower to the ground but was much more wobbly. There was a sign saying no more than 15 people on at once and absolutely no shaking. Well, of course not everyone followed the rule as at one point I think 60 people may have been crossing the bridge while one man was jumping at the end making everyone grip the railing to keep from falling over. After a little more than an hour of waiting, we changed buses and began the drive up, up, up the mountain. My ears were popping the whole time, so much so that I thought I would never regain full usage of them. The view from the top was amazing. The mountains were lush and full, with swaying trees, terraced fields, and green all around. Theresa and I decided not to hike up the seven million stairs that China placed perfectly to the top of the village. Instead we had a delicious lunch, did some shopping, and viewed the picturesque scenery from the foot of the village. After a couple of hours we were back on our bus and eventually (about four hours later) back in Yangshuo.

The traffic back in town was horrific. Our bus decided to just stop in the road and let us off instead of making it to the bus station. Theresa and I hustled to West Street to meet an old friend of ours from Wuhan. Yes, Candy came to Guilin on vacation at the same time as us and she had spent the day in Yangshuo while we were touring the terraces. We met her and her friend, Tina, for some pizza and conversation. It was so awesome seeing our friend and former coworker. I have missed her so much! At around 10 pm we took our final walk through the deep, dark woods and finished the night off in our hostel room with a good sleep.

We woke up nice and early this morning for our Tai Qi lesson on the roof. Ping, our instructor, was awesome. He had us laughing while we stretched our limbs and sliced our watermelons. We learned a three-step routine and a very small amount of Kung Fu. Ping said when I punch his hand that he, “Felt it hurt.” Tai Qi was so soothing and was an excellent way to spend our final morning in paradise. After our work out we ate some breakfast, laid down for a few minutes in bed, showered, and are currently packing up to head to the airport and back home to Beijing. Yangshuo was a much needed break from city-living and I have pretty much loved every moment of being here.

Mandarin lesson:

Bāshì 巴士 (bus)