Yangshuo with M & J

We're in Yangshuo with Mary and Justin, the land of rice fields and karsts. It's as lovely as it was the last time we were here, and we're having a great time sharing the experience this time. We're staying at a village farm complex turned guesthouse way out in the rice fields, which feels so authentic... meaning the beds are suitably hard to really be Chinese! Today, my 41st birthday, we spent on a four hour bike ride through the countryside and many little villages, and then later at cooking school in an old farm house. We ended the day back at China climb headquarters where I was surprised with a cake. What a wonderful way to spend my birthday! We're all wiped out now... looking forward to more adventures tomorrow. :-)

Moon Hill Hike

Yes, there are still more Yangshuo pictures!

This is Moon Hill... aptly named, as you can see. We hiked first to the "moon" portion, under the archway, and then to the very top of the arch. The first portion of the hike was all stone stairs, which were built for President Nixon's 1972 historic visit to China. The second part of the hike, to the tip top, was just a narrow and rocky trail. Nixon obviously didn't go to the top of the arch!

Bamboo seems to be a perfect canvas for graffiti in characters!In the shade in the "moon" portion of Moon Hill.
It was such a bright day we lost distance visibility in some of our photos... there were karsts as far as we could see.

This picture was taken on the very top, where we rested for a little while and had a snack. The panorama of karsts was awesome! Our guides told us that it is possible to repel from the top of Moon Hill... quite a long trip down. Maybe the next time we're in Yangshuo we'll try it.

Yangshuo Cooking School

One afternoon and evening in Yangshuo we participated in a cooking school. Our time began with a guided visit to the local market. We've been to a few of these types of markets in China, so it wasn't completely surprising, but I did stay away from the booths where they were slaughtering chickens and ducks. Still don't like to see that!

Wondering what those long skinny body parts hanging over the edge of the table are... Somebody's dinner waits in these cages...

A huge array of fresh produce. Do you suppose people eat the duck's bill? I know duck tongue is a specialty...
Here we are at the cooking school. It was held in a traditional courtyard Chinese home, back in a village with dirt roads, off the beaten path. I never would have picked it out! The cooking area surprisingly modern, given its surrondings. Each of us, including Madelyn, had our own cooking station complete with chopping block, wok, and gas burner. Gwen helped me. :-) There were about 15 people total in our group.

Our instructor would first demonstrate how to make a particular dish, then send us back to our stations to do it on our own. Caleb was very into this... he liked the fire of the burner and flipping the food around in the wok.
This is the lovely setting where we ate what we had prepared, a few courses at a time. It was right outside the cooking area.

Here we are sampling the Yangshuo style eggplant that we stir-fried with ginger and garlic.

Taking a break and enjoying the view while our woks were being cleaned to start the next course.

Those big cleavers were a little too much fun! In front of Caleb are the steamers where our vegetables (pumpkin flowers, mushrooms, zucchini, and ball tofu) stuffed with a pork mixture are cooking.
Delicious! The kids especially enjoyed the chicken with cashew nuts that we made. We also made a local specialty, beer fish.
As we were leaving, the cresent moon was shining in the violet sky.

On the Street

Some scenes from the pedestrian streets in Yangshuo~

Seth had his face painted on a t-shirt for something like 30 RMB. It wasn't an exact likeness, but the guy did a pretty good job.

Lots of little open air places to eat like this one. Fun to be able to watch what is happening on the street while we dine!Loved this collection of distance signs... no US destinations, but Toronto is pretty far from Yangshuo!
Karsts always looming in the background.

Browsing through the many booths... we got some Beijing 2008 t-shirts for a good price!

Riverside Retreat

Here is the tiny little hotel we stayed in outside of Yangshuo. It has a couple dozen rooms, minimally furnished but very clean and bright.This second story patio was where we had our breakfast every morning. The service was sketchy, but the view was amazing!
The Riverside Retreat is truly a hidden little get-away. I took this picture standing right in front of the steps up to the building, looking down the "road" that runs up to it.
Here we are in front of the Riverside Retreat, all in various China Climb t-shirts, posing with our guide Liang on the last day we were there.

Bike Trip

The scenery on this bike ride was breathtaking... you're lucky I was on my bike and unable to take as many pictues as I would have liked! I was continually overwhelmed by what God has created in this corner of the world. The ride was a neat combination of gorgeous views of the karsts and river along with a peek into life in agricultural Chinese villages. We rode through clusters of small brick homes, obviously quite old, where chickens ran through the dirt roads and neat gardens grew behind fences fashioned of twigs. Then the road would open out into vast, lush rice fields where a lone farmer in a straw hat would be working with his water buffalo beside him.

Madelyn and Gwen, both on the back seats of tandem bicycles that Scott and I rode, pointed out every chicken, chick, duck, dog and water buffalo they spotted! This was a good diversion for Gwen, who complained often about the bumpiness of the ride on the mostly rocky and dirt roads we were on.

We took a break when we got to this bridge, digging for recognizable flavors of popsicles to buy from a vendor with a small cart of frozen treats. Madelyn got an ice cream bar that was popcorn flavored. One of the others we bought had a melon taste. We avoided the bean and pea flavored popsicles.
We snapped this picture a minute too late. As we approached this scene, the buffalo had been standing at the top of this bridge for several minutes, right in the middle, refusing to move no matter how much his mistress tugged on the rope threaded through his nostrils and around his neck. As we stopped our bikes and fumbled to get the camera out, he finally ambled down the side of the bridge. A farmer at work.
Rice plants, nearly ready to harvest. Each plants yields two handfuls of rice. How is it that we feed the world with this? Amazing.Anyone want to come on this bike ride with us? We'd love to do it again.