In May of 2011, Access China Travel’s marketing department went to Yangshuo for a day. Located south of Guilin, Yangshuo has become famous as a traveler’s paradise. Its scenery is some of the most beautiful on earth and its traveler’s amenities are fantastic. It really has something for everybody. We decided to go to visit a new culinary school, have a day away from the office to blow off steam, and get some more photos for our website; http://www.accesschinatravel.com/. We had a lot of fun, as we always do, in Yangshuo.
Most people, when going from Guilin to Yangshuo, take the Li River Cruise. The cruise takes people past some of the most spectacular scenery in Yangshuo. We have all taken the cruise many times, and wanted to arrive a bit quicker, so we took a tour bus to Yangshuo. We arrived just before lunch, so we decided to stop for lunch before we started visiting sites.
We decided to take a tour of the Yangshuo countryside via small tour vans that can be rented. The countryside in Yangshuo is really stunning! The karst mountains that have made it famous are breathtaking and those mountains are surrounded by picturesque rice fields, bamboo groves, ancient villages, and water buffalo. It is really a magical place and one could easy spend an entire day just traveling around the countryside 
enjoying the beauty that surrounds you. The touring van is a great relaxing way to see it. On the way, the van stopped at an ancient house. The house was very interesting. The house was made of wood and was just filled with history. The house is entered by a main gate which opens into a courtyard. The main building is facing the courtyard and it is filled with antiques. The farmer and his wife who live there are used to having guests drop by and they 
demonstrate how they grind soybeans to make tofu, spin yarn, and the farmer has a few birds, one of which performs tricks. It really was a great place. The main hall of the house is a large room. The room is very interesting and has family shrines, old furniture, and carvings. After visiting the house, we continued on our way. When we got back to Yangshuo, we decided we had not seen enough of the countryside and decided to rent 
bikes to go back. The benefit to riding a bicycle through the countryside is that you get to go at your own speed, stop wherever you like, and get lots and lots of photographs. After riding around for a couple of hours, we headed back to where we rented the bikes and went on to visit a cooking school. .
We went to the cooking school because we were thinking of
adding it to our itineraries. The school was located in the countryside in an ancient home. The owner, an Australian took us on a tour of the school. It is really located in a beautiful place. It overlooks the countryside and is surrounded by rice fields. There was a water buffalo playing in the water near the dining room. The school teaches people how to cook Guilin local cuisine making sure that the dishes are reproducible in 
the West, so no uncommon ingredients are used. Students first take a tour of a local market to see how the different vegetables and meats are sold. Then they go back to the school for class. The teachers are local Guilin people who speak excellent English and each person has his/her own wok and burner. They are taught to make several dishes and at the end of the day’s lesson, they all get together in the dining room to enjoy the meal. We 
were very impressed with the school. It is very well run and set up. The owner gave me a recipe book and I am going to cook some of the dishes and make a blog about that. After visiting the cooking school, we went to Yangshuo’s West Street.
West Street is famous as a shopping street. It is lined with shops, cafés, bars, and restaurants. The street is really unique in that
there are as many, or more, tourists there, as there are Chinese. The shops are quite lovely selling everything from cheap souvenirs, to beautiful works of art. You can find artists of all types creating one of a kind pieces. There are also silk shops, clothing stores, and stores that sell Chinese minority handicrafts. The cafes and restaurants serve both Western and Chinese cuisine and the bars have a large selection of drinks. The street 
is fun during the day and also at night, when it really gets hopping. We really enjoyed walking down it looking in the shops, and sampling snacks.
We had dinner in a lovely restaurant near the Li River. We had local Guilin dishes including the famous Beer Fish. The dish is incredible and Yangshuo is very famous for it. After dinner we went
to the Impressions of Liu Sanjia performance. The show was created by Chinese movie director Zhang Yimou. He also created the opening and closing ceremony for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The performance is really incredible. It uses over 600 performers and is performed right out in the Li River with the mountains as the backdrop. It tells the story of a girl, Liu Sanjie and how she gets 
married. It really is an amazing performance and no matter how many times we see it, we are always really impressed with it. It really should not be missed. After the performance, we went back to downtown Yangshuo to take the bus home.
Our trip to Yangshuo was a lot of fun. We got a huge amount of fantastic photos as well as found a new site to add to our itineraries. It was a great way for us to not only get a lot of work done, but to spend some time out of the office getting to know each other better.
Most people, when going from Guilin to Yangshuo, take the Li River Cruise. The cruise takes people past some of the most spectacular scenery in Yangshuo. We have all taken the cruise many times, and wanted to arrive a bit quicker, so we took a tour bus to Yangshuo. We arrived just before lunch, so we decided to stop for lunch before we started visiting sites.
We decided to take a tour of the Yangshuo countryside via small tour vans that can be rented. The countryside in Yangshuo is really stunning! The karst mountains that have made it famous are breathtaking and those mountains are surrounded by picturesque rice fields, bamboo groves, ancient villages, and water buffalo. It is really a magical place and one could easy spend an entire day just traveling around the countryside 
enjoying the beauty that surrounds you. The touring van is a great relaxing way to see it. On the way, the van stopped at an ancient house. The house was very interesting. The house was made of wood and was just filled with history. The house is entered by a main gate which opens into a courtyard. The main building is facing the courtyard and it is filled with antiques. The farmer and his wife who live there are used to having guests drop by and they 
demonstrate how they grind soybeans to make tofu, spin yarn, and the farmer has a few birds, one of which performs tricks. It really was a great place. The main hall of the house is a large room. The room is very interesting and has family shrines, old furniture, and carvings. After visiting the house, we continued on our way. When we got back to Yangshuo, we decided we had not seen enough of the countryside and decided to rent 
bikes to go back. The benefit to riding a bicycle through the countryside is that you get to go at your own speed, stop wherever you like, and get lots and lots of photographs. After riding around for a couple of hours, we headed back to where we rented the bikes and went on to visit a cooking school. .We went to the cooking school because we were thinking of
adding it to our itineraries. The school was located in the countryside in an ancient home. The owner, an Australian took us on a tour of the school. It is really located in a beautiful place. It overlooks the countryside and is surrounded by rice fields. There was a water buffalo playing in the water near the dining room. The school teaches people how to cook Guilin local cuisine making sure that the dishes are reproducible in 
the West, so no uncommon ingredients are used. Students first take a tour of a local market to see how the different vegetables and meats are sold. Then they go back to the school for class. The teachers are local Guilin people who speak excellent English and each person has his/her own wok and burner. They are taught to make several dishes and at the end of the day’s lesson, they all get together in the dining room to enjoy the meal. We 
were very impressed with the school. It is very well run and set up. The owner gave me a recipe book and I am going to cook some of the dishes and make a blog about that. After visiting the cooking school, we went to Yangshuo’s West Street.West Street is famous as a shopping street. It is lined with shops, cafés, bars, and restaurants. The street is really unique in that
there are as many, or more, tourists there, as there are Chinese. The shops are quite lovely selling everything from cheap souvenirs, to beautiful works of art. You can find artists of all types creating one of a kind pieces. There are also silk shops, clothing stores, and stores that sell Chinese minority handicrafts. The cafes and restaurants serve both Western and Chinese cuisine and the bars have a large selection of drinks. The street 
is fun during the day and also at night, when it really gets hopping. We really enjoyed walking down it looking in the shops, and sampling snacks.We had dinner in a lovely restaurant near the Li River. We had local Guilin dishes including the famous Beer Fish. The dish is incredible and Yangshuo is very famous for it. After dinner we went
to the Impressions of Liu Sanjia performance. The show was created by Chinese movie director Zhang Yimou. He also created the opening and closing ceremony for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The performance is really incredible. It uses over 600 performers and is performed right out in the Li River with the mountains as the backdrop. It tells the story of a girl, Liu Sanjie and how she gets 
married. It really is an amazing performance and no matter how many times we see it, we are always really impressed with it. It really should not be missed. After the performance, we went back to downtown Yangshuo to take the bus home.Our trip to Yangshuo was a lot of fun. We got a huge amount of fantastic photos as well as found a new site to add to our itineraries. It was a great way for us to not only get a lot of work done, but to spend some time out of the office getting to know each other better.
To see more photos of our trip to Yangshuo, visit our photo album at:
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