Yangshuo Day 1

This post is written by Katie, about her solo trip to Yangshuo. 

Today I woke well rested and refreshed at 7:30am. I started my laundry and ate a delicious western style breakfast in the garden of Huanggong Garden Hotel.  The Chinese-speaking brother of the owner picked me lots of grape like fruits. They were like grapes, but had hard shells that had to be peeled. They also grow their own pears and passion fruit! The great breakfast is certainly worth the ¥35 that they charge.

Breakfast in the hotel’s garden
After breakfast I walked to the Bike Asia office and finally rented a ¥70/day bike for three days.  They recommended two routes, and I picked the one that goes southeast of Yangshuo through various villages since they said this one would be pretty and have limited traffic.  My track shows my path.
I navigated the Yangshuo traffic and made my way to Mu Shan.  Having live Google Maps on my phone was extremely useful to keep track of where I was and where I was going.    I was surrounded by Karst mountains and farming almost the entire ride.  I saw a girl rock climbing shortly before reaching Mu Shan.  There were periodic ‘rest areas’ on the route that consisted of a covered seating area.  I also saw multiple water oxen wading in the watery grass, which was pretty cool.  Generally through, it was just a lot of people carrying out their daily lives in a beautiful setting.
My bike and the Li River

Me and the Li River
From Mu Shan I continued on to Du Tou, Xin Zhai, and Lui Gong.  There was a sign advertising local farm food at the turn-off for Lui Gong, but I could never find the place the sign was advertising for, so I continued onward to Mu Qiao.  I could have headed back to Yangshuo after Mu Qiao, but I still had energy and was enjoying the ride, so I continued onward to Young Cun and Le Xiang before realizing I had no easy path back to Yangshuo that did not involve riding on the main thoroughfare leading into Yangshuo.  It ended up being okay, since there were bike likes most of the way, but the ride was not scenic at all.  There was also a lot of work in progress (although not currently in progress…?), so there were signs advertising routes to particular areas, but then when you got to the turn-off, you would see a barely constructed road that completely stopped about 50 meters away.  It was very strange.
Lots of pretty farmland 
More pretty farmland

 And even more pretty farmland

 And other shot of pretty farmland – most of the ride was like this!
Traffic was terrible in Yangshuo, and I ended up walking my bike on the sidewalk for a while.  I ate an early dinner at Lucy’s Place again before heading back to Huanggong Garden Hotel.  I researched what to do with my remaining time, and then went down to enjoy the sunset from the garden.  While there, I was offered dinner by the owner and his brother.  I said yes to a little, and it ended up being rice, vegetables, and pig nose!  The pig nose was not as bad as you might imagine, and I ate a few pieces, but I would not purposely order it.

After dinner I relaxed in the garden for a bit before bringing my nice bike inside (the owner suggested it) and retreating to my room.  Overall, it was a great day!

Leave a Reply