A weekend in Yangshuo, China
- therockettman
- Jun 27
- 5 min read
One of the attractions of displacing myself from my DC home for a year-long teaching assignment in Hong Kong is the opportunity to travel throughout Southeast Asia and mainland China. With a long weekend available to us, we decided to travel to Yangshuo County to see some of China’s most breathtaking scenery.
The landscape of this region is characterized by karst mountains, which are the result of limestone formations that have eroded over millions of years, creating dramatically steep peaks that tower over the Li and Yulong rivers. The erosion has also contributed to an intricate system of underground springs and caverns. Viewed from any vantage point, the panorama is reminiscent of the floating Hallelujah Mountains of Pandora in the film Avatar.
The trip is approximately five hours via highspeed rail from Hong Kong, including a connection in Guangzhou. There are two options for overnight stays in this destination – the city of Yangshuo and the village of Xingping. As the latter is a short 15-minute taxi ride from the train station, we chose to use Xingping as our base to visit the region. Our hotel was a modern, international-standard hotel situated on the Li River and a short walk to the ancient village of Xingping. It also had views of the dramatic peaks from the property, some rising up like sentries overlooking the hotel.
It is important to note that many dining establishments in these smaller Chinese cities do not have an internet presence in English. So, attempting to source information on recommended restaurants is challenging using an English language search engine. Once identified, they are even more difficult to find while at your destination, due to inaccuracies in the naming of the restaurant, location and/or lack of English language identifiers. But we persevered as best we could with our short list and the Apple Maps app (with an underlying VPN connection).
On our first day, we assessed our options for lunch using the Apple Maps app and set off on a short walk to our first target, which was situated just outside the gateway of the ancient village. With a little guidance from other dining establishments near to our intended destination, we were delighted to stumble upon a place that Apple Maps identified as Gold Medal Roast Goose Beer Fish.
The name helps identify what the specialties are, so we sampled both the goose and the beer fish accompanied by a dish of dry-fried green beans. Beer fish is a dish unique to the region and comprises a lightly fried freshwater fish that is added to a cooking pan and further simmered in a spicy beer-based sauce on a gas stove on your tabletop. The food was excellent and cost about $35 US for two, including a couple of beers to wash down the meal.
We then headed to the cruise terminal in the center of Xingping ancient town to arrange a cruise along the Li River in an all-weather boat (i.e. covered). The cruise was a 70-minute excursion helpfully narrated in Mandarin Chinese; but for the Yuan equivalent of $16 US, it represented a fantastic bargain. With only 30 passengers, the boat was comfortable and roomy and offered spectacular views of some of the most famous limestone formations, including the ‘five fingers’ cluster and the iconic 20 Yuan RMB view, so called because it appears on the back of the 20 Yuan currency note.
Following that, a stroll through Xingping ancient town revealed an authentic Chinese village comprising low-rise wood or stone buildings encroaching on narrow, brick-paved alleyways that were quaint and quiet – unless and until one had to dodge the occasional scooter moving with purpose. We were again lucky to stumble on one of our short-listed restaurants, Songjian Li’anyu Bar, which was situated near the cruise terminal. Here we sampled a popular local dish of spicy river shrimp that were quite small and eaten whole without removing the shell. This single dish accompanied by a couple of beers was sufficient as we overloaded ourselves at lunch!
The following day involved a full-day tour of the principal attractions of Yangshuo County by car, which was arranged by Andy Private China Tours, and accompanied by our driver, Peter. Andy orchestrated the visit and tickets to Ruyi Peak Cableway in advance (which cost $30 US per person), and was a wonderful opportunity to experience elevated vistas of the magnificent scenery. The views from the platform at the cable car terminus were majestic and the visibility that afternoon was at least 30 miles, if not more. The cable car ticket also entitles you to walk on a suspension bridge, forest trail and glass walkway if you feel so inclined, which my wife did not.
Peter then drove us to various well-known attractions along the Ten Mile Gallery scenic route that is so called because it resembles a continuous watercolor painting over an extended distance. We then hopped onto a covered scooter (much like a golf cart) driven by Peter through the countryside, past paddy fields of rice and other crops, stopping for a village lunch and then continuing along the Yulong river to several vantage points until reaching the famous 600-year-old Fuli Bridge. The excursion lasted about 2 hours (excluding lunch) and cost just under $30 US.
We returned by car via Ten Mile Gallery, with stops at a Lotus garden, the popular Moon Hill and Gongnong Bridge, followed by a short walk around Yangshuo town. It was at this point that we realized that we had chosen well to stay in Xingping over Yangshuo. The latter felt like being in a highly commercialized, Chinese version of Downtown Disney, filled with retail bling that included McDonalds, Starbucks, KFC and a variety of American sports apparel superstores - the complete antithesis to Xingping. Having said that it offered more contemporary dining, bars and nightlife, whereas in Xingping it was quiet after sunset and alcohol offerings were almost entirely limited to local beer.
We closed out the trip on a gastronomic high with Sunday dinner in Yuelo, also in the ancient village. They allowed us to open one of the 500ml bottles of rice wine we bought in Yangshuo to accompany a delicious dinner that comprised chicken stew cooked in bamboo and BBQ pork strips that were tangy and succulent, accompanied by roast green beans with black olives. The bill came to $25 US.
Yangshuo County was a magical destination that surprised and delighted us. It is definitely a must-see for anyone looking to undertake an extended excursion throughout mainland China.
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