When we arrived in Yangshuo, we went to our hostel to check in, and were pleasantly surprised that it was the same price as our hostel in Guilin, only 20 RMB (approximately $3 USD) a night per person. And it was a nice hostel too! After we checked in, we went to go shopping in the center of town, which is always a fun bargaining experience. We discovered that Yangshuo has the largest selection of Western food (out of anywhere I have been at least) in China so far. Pizza, ice cream, hamburgers and other western food options lined the streets, as well as your fair selection of Beer Fish, Rice noodles and other specialties to the region. That night after shopping, we had pizza and draft beer, which despite how much I love Chinese food, was one of the best meals ever. The perfect combination! That night we watched Harry Potter in Chinese at our hostel.
The next day we got up early and had breakfast at a Western restaurant called Kelly's. I just got baozi because 1.) they're the best thing ever and 2.) they're way cheaper. But my friends got a typical breakfast of eggs and bacon, and they were thrilled. "This was the reason I wanted to come back to Yangshuo," Vince said, as he had already been once before, "For their Western food." Then we rented bikes and Kevin led us into a rural area, where we biked to a small, but famous, bridge. I think it was called Dragon Something Bridge but I'm not sure. The scenery was beautiful, "so beautiful it's like a painting," as one Chinese proverb goes. We stopped for lunch in a small little town that had a sign out front that said, "This town is the perfect model of a socialist community." That was one of our worst meals of the trip, mostly just because it was so expensive and the waitresses smelled bad.
We continued on to a famous mountain next to the town. We climbed to the top of the mountain on a trail surrounded by bamboo, greeted every few minutes by old women carrying coolers on their back full of drinks like water and soda. When we got the the top, there were more old ladies that could barely speak Mandarin selling postcards. After taking a rest to enjoy the scenery, we continued down a path that was marked "Forbidden path for tourists." After crouching down almost the whole way up (the path was overgrown by bamboo) we were rewarded by an absolutely phenomenal view of Yangshuo. I've included the pictures in this post. Probably the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my life.
After hiking back down the mountain, we biked home. That night, we had hamburgers and french fries at Kelly's. I got their famous veggie burger and it was amazing! I know, I know what you're thinking. How can a veggie burger taste good? But this was a hand-made patty of deliciousness. That night we hung out on the rooftop of a bar, and were awed by the scenery once again. Artificial lights lit up the views of the mountains surrounding us, and at 10:00 pm on the dot, all the scenic lights went out, plunging the scenery into darkness. After a little while we went home and fell asleep, exhausted from the days activities.
The next day was Saturday, May 8th, and we got another Western breakfast and shopped a little more. We also bought fruit and snacks for the 27-hour train ride back to Nanjing that awaited us later that evening. That afternoon, we got a bus back to Guilin, went to Kevin's apartment to get our stuff, ate some rice noodles, and went to the train station. At 7:00 pm we boarded our train and discovered that our train-mates were two younger guys from Anhui province and a group of women heading to Shanghai for a meeting. The women started playing cards, and inspired, we started our own game of hearts. It was definitely a party train. Very "热闹 renao" as they say in Chinese, which at it's best translation, means "lively." One of the young guys from Anhui was extremely curious about us, and asked us a million questions. The cabin was hot, for some reason it didn't have air conditioning either. At 10:00 pm, the lights went out, and I climbed up to my top bunk and slept soundly. Apparently, the guy from Anhui kept asking Vince (who was on the bottom bunk) questions until Vince was like, "Alright, dude, I'm going to sleep."
The next day, we woke up around 9:00 am and did homework for most of the day. The guy from Anhui kept relentlessly asking us questions. It was pretty funny after a while, but to be fair, he did help us with our homework. We snacked on our fruit and cookies the whole day and played cards. I took a nap around 3:00 pm for a couple hours. Then at 10:00 pm on Sunday, May 9th our train arrived in Nanjing. We took the subway back to campus and said goodbye as we went our separate ways. Another semester, another Spring Break. This one was unforgettable.
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