To market, to market to buy a fat pig, rabbit, snake...

(Lauren) Yangshuo Day 2

Alex, Sandy, and I headed out early this morning to cruise West Street once again. There, Alex tried haggling for the first time and picked up a traditional Chinese landscape painting and two pairs of chopsticks. The three of us then headed to a small shop selling bamboo carvings and tested the limits of our Chinese. The seller was a very nice, very friendly young woman who only spoke a little English. We communicated in a mix of Chinese, English, and miming, each of us exclaiming excitedly every time we managed to understand what the other was saying. We spent nearly a half an hour at her store, and drew a fair amount of attention. Westerners are a bit more of a rarity in Yangshuo, so we’ve found that we’re more of an attraction to the locals than we were in Hong Kong or Guilin. Kids especially are eager to come up to us and test their English, and we have fun trying to reply in Chinese.

After finishing up with the bamboo carving seller, the three of us went back to the MeiYou Café, where we had eaten the previous night, to meet up with Cassie. (Alaina decided to remain in the hotel, feeling a little bit sick). We wanted to check out an herbal tea shop that we’d heard about, and asked a local woman for directions to 46 HuiGua Rd. Unfortunately, the woman spoke no English, and didn’t actually know where 46 HuiGua was. After walking around both West and HuiGua streets and asking several police officers and shop owners for directions, the woman decided that 46 HuiGua was not to be found. Naturally, we went down the road a little bit further, and found the store we were looking for immediately! To complicate matters a little bit more, the store owner, Dr. Lily, was out of the shop.

Thinking that Dr. Lily had taken a lunch break, we headed to Cloud 9 Restaurant, rumored to have the best food in Yangshuo. Cloud 9 was the first restaurant we ate at that we felt had really traditional Chinese food – nothing Americanized! Cassie was daring, and ordered us double-cooked pork, duck, and stuffed river snails. We all tried the snails, even though Alex was incredibly disgusted (and is still shocked and traumatized).

After lunch, we went back to Dr. Lily’s store. Dr. Lily was there this time, and gave us a quick introduction to the properties of medicinal teas. She also did physical examinations of each of us.

Final diagnoses:

Cassie and I were told we had “too much fire in the heart” as a result of too much stress. Because Cassie also had “too much fire in the liver” she was told not to eat deep fried, fatty, or spicy foods. She was pretty disappointed by her new dietary restrictions, but I was happy to hear that to deal with lung issues, I should eat more cinnamon! Less happily, I was told I didn’t have enough yang energy in my body (need more sun) and a digestion that indicated impending sickness (I’m hoping she was wrong about that).

Sandy and Alex were told that they have weak stomachs and spleens, and that their bodies hold too much phlegm. Alex was told to get more sun to introduce more yang energy into his body, and to eat less fatty food. Sandy was told to watch out for an impending cold. We were all very interested in some of the medicines we could see on the shelves – snakes and fetal rats were pickling in jars as cures for arthritis!

After leaving Dr. Lily’s shop, we went back to the hotel to pick up Alaina in time for our cooking class at the Yangshuo Cooking School. Amy, our teacher, picked us up from the hotel and started our lesson by taking us through the local farmer’s market. We were the only Western people in the whole market, so this was the first part of the trip where we were really conscious of our status as tourists.

The farmer’s market was made up of several large warehouses, filled with people selling all kinds of goods. There were many kinds of fish, chicken, and rabbits. It was a little hard for us to see those animals, because as Alaina commented, “they’re so cute and alive and could be in a pet shop.” Many of the locals were killing and gutting these animals as we watched, which was an interesting experience – I saw several chickens being strangled, and a couple of fish being gutted, which was a bit gory. Of course, there were also many exotic types of foods that we would never eat in America. We also saw dried rats, dogs hanging up to be sold, the feet of an unidentified bird, and water snakes being speared on nails and cut up. We were really impressed by the market, which we thought was a great insight into the local culture.

Once Amy had bought what she needed from the market, we drove to the Yangshuo Cooking School, which is located a few minutes outside of Yangshuo. We were treated to the closer view of the beautiful mountains nearby, and got our first glimpse of a more rural China. It was amazing how quickly the buildings started to look a bit dilapidated once we left Yangshuo proper. We soon arrived at the cooking school, which was a very picturesque rural home. Amy and her coworkers served us some tea while we got settled in, and then it was time to cook.

Over the course of several hours, Amy taught us how to make a full course Chinese dinner. We made “Egg-Wrapped Dumplings,” “Steamed Chicken with Mushrooms,” “Eggplant Yangshuo Style,” “Stir-Fried Pork with Vegetables and Oyster Sauce,” and “Green Vegetables with Garlic.” All of the dishes were very simple to make (I can’t cook, but even I could manage with help from Amy). Best of all, we got to eat our creations for dinner! Consensus was that the egg-wrapped dumplings and eggplant Yangshuo style were especially delicious (although we thought all the food was great!) The women of the cooking school were also very fun to learn from. Other than Amy, they spoke very little English, but they were able to mime instructions to us, and they were gracious hosts. Everyone left the Yangshuo Cooking School considering it a definite highlight.

After returning to our hotel, we decided to go to bed a bit early, since we’ve got a very long day tomorrow. Next stop: Kunming.