A Hill of a Day

Kelby

Today we had yet another amazing day. The day started off with Elizabeth, Iona, Mrs. Waterman and I having breakfast in our hotel. I had my usual dumplings, fruit, and noodles with green tea. We’ve been trying to eat more and more Chinese food as the days go by, and today was nice to not see a “Western Breakfast” bestowed upon us. At around 9:10 our breakfast ended, and the day would begin.

The Sisterhood decided to try and bike to the famous rice fields in Yangshuo’s mountains. What the Sisterhood did not quite comprehend was the distance from the city to the countryside. It was not a few pedals to the patties, but an odyssey of thousands, upon thousands, upon thousands, heck, upon another thousand wheel rotations before one could reach the destination. Long story short, the Sisterhood could not prevail past the mountains, past Fuli town, past the right turn one would take after going through Fuli town, in order to get to the rice fields. However, the adventure was one to remember.

I had never seen anything like the Chinese countryside. Buildings were constructed from brick and cement, but they were the most run-down structures we passed. It looked as though the city tried to expand its masses into the mountains, but society refused to budge beyond the Li River. For those who did venture across the water, they brought their scooters and families with them, mixed bamboo with the brick and cement structures, and adapted to a presumably primitive way of life. It was fascinating to see such a clash of cultures: city folk traveling 20 minutes to be in the wilderness. With no pun intended, it was wild.

To cross the river, we had to climb aboard a pipe raft with a rusty motor, which was manned by a local. The ferry experience was amazing, for we had never been so low to the water, nor have we ever been on a ferry so cheap (5 RMB per person, which is equal to about 83 cents). We then biked through the mountains of Yangshuo. Overall, the roads were nice and flat, in comparison to the mountains of course. After biking for about 2 hours and seeing no Fuli town, no right turn, and no rice patties, we decided to stop, have a snack, and turn around.

We got back to the hotel at around 1:45, but could not stay in long due to our cooking class at 3:00.

The cooking class was phenomenal. We learned how to prepare a cucumber miner salad, pork dumplings, wheat noodles with vegetables, and beer fish (a Guilin delicacy). The format of the class was meeting the chef (Jenny), walking to the local food market, preparing the food, and then eating the food for dinner. Jenny was fantastic, and her English was amazing, which made the class easy and fun. Hopefully the four of us will be able to make you all some food when we return.

Now we are all safe and tucked in as we head out to Kunming tomorrow. Our time in Yangshuo has been amazing, as we were welcomed by the people, captured by the scenery, and immersed into a city with so much history and life. The city breathes, and now it breathes within us, as our travels continue into the heart of China.