Yansgshuo – Chinese Countryside

The city of Guilin connects to the Li-river, which was one of the main water routes within the area, but nowadays it serves as a spot for scenic river cruises. When I left from Guilin our tour group was driven to the piers where “bamboo boats” were waiting for us. Originally these kind of boats were made from a real bamboo and were used by fishermen or traders between different cities, but for convenience (I guess) these new “bamboo” boats were just imitation from original ones because the bottom had been made using kind of plastic because then they were able to carry more people on them (4 in total).

River is surrounded by round-top mountains, rocky shores with tents where people (locals?) gathered for bbq, and green forests were was once in a while possible to see a short peak of someone’s house. The river cruise took by bamboo boat 2 hours and ended in an old XingPing town, and from there on we had a bus transport to Yangshuo town. One of the main highlights were the spot called the nine horse hill, which is the scenery that can be seen on the 20rmb note.

The Yangshuo itself is not that attracting, the thing that attracts tourists more are the surroundings. It is the place where people can discover the countryside living in China by taking readymade tours, renting bicycles, go hiking etc. During whole my stay in China I haven’t seen so many (non-Chinese) tourists in one place, but like I said, the town attracts people and tourism is it main business. I stayed one night in Yangshuo, it was interesting because I found an Oral English school that offers free accommodation and food for foreigners who are fluent in English as an exchange for foreigners to participate on some school teaching activities. For example I held 2 hours long English talking session with Chinese who were practising English in that school, which practically meant having a small talk for two hours whatever things come to mind – Funny and convenient.

When leaving Yangshuo I joined another tourist group which did head up to Longji rice terraces. But before we reached the actual terraces, we stopped in a small small village of the “long hair people.” The name come from legend that women can only cut their hair once in a lifetime, when they turn 18 – which is probably true since the length of the hair is generally between 1-2 meters. That is the place that could be called a dream for a real hard-core feminist. The culture of the long hair people is highly women powered. Women are the ones who do all the job (fishing, farming etc.) and man is the one who stays at home for cooking and taking care of the house. People in the village believe in folk stories and they have a habit to keep those stories alive by performing singing and dancing. And another habit they have that if woman likes man, she can pinch the man’s ass to show interest but man can’t pinch back unless he wants to marry the woman. And I can swear that I kept my hands tight inside my pockets to avoid any misunderstanding since that village is not place for me to live in rest of my life.

After visit in the village, next stop was the Longji rice terraces, which are one of the biggest one in China and are also called by the name of “Dragon’s backbone.” The view there depends on a season, for an example autumn all rice fields are yellow or summer season pumped up full of water which creates beautiful reflection of sunlight. I really have to admit that view was something like that I haven’t seen ever before and as it was a bit cloudy/rainy day, the mist made the view even more mystical. Also by seeing those terraces on own eyes, I can actually understand how hard work it is to harvest the rice. There are no tractors or other machines to make work easier, it is all based on pure labour work with the help of horses / water buffaloes. The village at the rice terraces got electricity around 10 years ago and still there are no electric cookers as the food is prepared using open fire. But I have to admit that I ate the most delicious rice there in my life, bamboo rice: A bamboo filled with rice and vegetables. It was then cooked on open fire and when it was ready, the chef brought bamboo on a table opening it, and I ate rice using the bamboo as a plate. 

Welcome to 21^st century, welcome to China – the land of contrasts!