Travels in China: Yangshou County

Yangshou County is located in the Northeast of Guangxi Provence. We’d traveled to Nanning, the capital of Guangxi Provence, a few weeks earlier. Yangshou is the smallest city we have visited thus far, only 300,000 people. It is also very tourism-centric; they have been courting European and American tourists since the 1970s and it is the 5th most popular Chinese destination for American tourists. A benefit of this is many of the locals speak some level of English, which has not been the case in the other cities we have visited so far.

However, I did not know it would be so touristy, and actually thought it would be a nice, relaxing trip to the countryside to see the many, many karst mountains and spend some time in nature, with walking trails and a chill atmosphere. I was incorrect in my assumption.

Part of planning a two month trip to China was researching the cities we would visit, but not too much; I talk about how we plan our days in more detail in this post; but to summarize, I do research, but do not have set itineraries and usually pick something to do or visit the morning of, unless its really important or a planned tour. In fact, Yangshou was the place I was most excited about, as I was looking forward to a relaxed atmosphere, and it was anything but.

If you have traveled to coastal cities in Mexico, the Caribbean or central America, and have experienced walking on the side of the road, single-file, while cars and scooters drive past, restaurateurs clamor for your business, vendors invite you to buy their wares, and there’s lots of noise and smells (good and bad) everywhere, then you can picture Yangshou. Except it’s the Li River instead of an ocean, and all the signs are in Chinese as opposed to Spanish. So, I was a little thrown off, as we had planned to spend a week here.

You wouldn’t know it from the train station, however, as it is low-key and has karst mountains all around.

About a half hour drive from our arrival at the train station, we arrived at our hotel, a wonderful homestay, which was a short walk from the river, and not near the busy main part of the city. We had a balcony (the lower right one of the picture below, obscured by the tree), and the most friendly staff we could ask for at any hotel stay. And they spoke English, so we could ask them questions and not use the translator, which was so helpful.

Unfortunately (for us), it is on the only road that runs parallel to the river, and thus is busy, from morning until dark. And across the street was an extremely popular picture taking location, so it was a consistent honking of cars trying to get around tourists on electric scooters and walkers and everyday people doing their jobs; it was not relaxing, but a pretty background.

We did really enjoy the setting and food at the hotel; they prepared it without MSG and it was very fresh and tasty; and we had a great view while we ate.

They had a big list of things to do at the hotel, and before we arrived they had a four day itinerary planned; but we passed, as we like to explore on our own, so we did, and those will be the focus of the next two posts. We actually did get to experience nature, travel to the top of one of the karst mountains for spectacular views, take a cruise on the river, and visit an abandoned temple, so stay tuned!