Yangshuo, South China - October 12th to 20th

Yangshuo near Guilin in south China was where we met up with Oliver and Shasha again. Famous tourist spot for the unique 'Karst' hills of that area and lovely rural scenery. Still within the Chinese holiday period, so very crowded with coach loads of Chinese tourists arriving every day and masses of sellers and touts. Fortunately the most important thing for Chinese tourists seems to be to pose in front of famous sights and not much else, so it is quite easy to get away from the crowd.

We stayed first in 'Moon Village' which takes its name from the moon shaped hole in the nearby hill. Favourite local activities include cycling and going on the river in bamboo rafts.


Yangshuo street, before the coaches arrive and Moon Village with Moon Hill in the background.

Below: The karsts. Limestone hills that shoot straight up out of the plain with rivers running around their bases. These can be seen over a large area around, but Yangshuo is the most famous being built right in amongst them.

Local village typical streets with mix of old wooden houses and new concrete ones.

River trips on a bamboo raft. Motorised for longer distances. You could even have your  lunch from food prepared on shingle banks in the middle of the river. Later we had a punted one starting from the 'dragon bridge' that was very pleasant and peaceful. They are punted down river and even over wiers and then taken back upstream on a truck.

What bamboo rafts are really meant for and typical small scale raised bed production and bamboos in the background. 

Hostel we moved to after O&S returned to Shanghai. Further away from the tourism. Very restful whilst I was still recovering from my bug. Eventually I went to the local Chinese medicine practitioner (conventional doctors in rural China not being the first choice, especially with the language barrier). Based on an examination of my hands, tongue and eyes and without much discussion of the symtoms, she prescribed half a litre of disgusting herbal medicine per day for 3 days. I was also told that my liver and lungs needed a tonic. The medicine was prepared that day and presented in plastic drinking water bottles. It looked like black muddy water and tasted much worse. Once I had tried it, I felt quite ill just thinking about having some more. However I did make a very rapid recovery after a day or so and was encouraged to continue drinking it. Since then I have been fine.