Li River to Yangshuo

(Lizzy Briskin)

Ni Hao!

It’s only our fourth day here in China, but we have already seen so much that it feels like we have been here for weeks. Yesterday we took the Li River Boat Cruise from Guilin to Yangshuo, a relatively small city.

The landscape in this part of China is amazing. The entire area was once an ocean, but what remains now is the thriving Li River surrounded by dramatic karst mountains that appear randomly, jutting straight out of the otherwise flat landscape. We had amazing views of the scenery on the four-hour boat cruise ...
The river was full of small, brightly-colored boats and bamboo rafts; some giving tours, others used as transportation for the fishermen and fruit peddlers. The drama of the mountains was sometimes interrupted by small villages where people were doing laundry or cleaning dishes in the surprisingly clear river.  Colin and I tried snake wine on the ship, which as he described, was like drinking Listerine without the mint.

When the boat docked in Yangshuo, our guide led us to our hotel down the incredibly busy West Street, which is a huge, loud market full of pushy venders and shoppers. Yangshuo is a very lively city where car horns are constantly being honked and we are constantly being stared at. We took an extremely steep staircase up one of the karst mountains and had a great view of the city.

This morning, after out jet lag caught up to us, we got to sleep in before being picked up for a cooking class.  The class was held in a beautiful pavilion with a great view of the river, where we saw water buffalo. We made mushrooms and tofu balls stuffed with pork, an eggplant dish, cashew chicken, steamed vegetables, and beer fish, a delicacy in Yangshuo. Everything was delicious, and we all enjoyed learning how to use cleavers. After the class we were given a guided tour of a local market, which sold everything from live rabbit to enormous watermelons. We then purchased some mystery food at a supermarket, and some of us got to practice our bartering skills with a street peddler.

Tonight we are free to choose our own restaurant and food, which should be very interesting, given that most attempts at English translation of menus are more confusing than the actual Chinese.