Whoa, Yangshuo

The Yangshuo recipe:

Ingredients:
- 1 part traditional Chinese fishing village
- 1 part westernized mountain town
- 2 parts stunning Karst topography
- 1 part kitschy resort town
- a liberal dash of hip western music
- two pinches of ancient Chinese customs
- a heaping pile of international tourists

Directions:
Whip all ingredients into froth, and simmer for years in the Post-Mao communist China pressure cooker.



Yangshuo is trippy. Walk down the streets here, and your senses will head into overdrive. The café on the left is blaring Eminem, while the one across the street grooves to Bing’s Winter Wonderland. Street hawkers sell everything from bicycle tours to bananas, and they find you wherever you go.
Climbing gyms punctuate the scene, and international groups of climbers lounge around drinking Red Bull and Vodka. Cafés tout menus that have everything from banana pancakes to lasagna bolognese to roasted bamboo rat.



Tour groups periodically tramp in unison down the street in matching hats, getting explanations from their guide in the language du jour. Ancient cormorant fishermen walk the streets with their trained birds balanced on sections of bamboo. Guesthouses advertise dirt-cheap rooms in both Chinese and English, and every café has the coldest beer in town.

All of this is set amidst towering limestone pinnacles, and against the backdrop of impoverished rural China. Yangshuo is groovy, hip, educational, funky, sobering, eye opening, and fun. It is one of the strangest places we have ever been, yet we like it. As odd as it is, the recipe works.

Enjoy the Yangshuo Photo Gallery.*

*Warning to animal lovers (and those with weak stomachs): some food item photos are a little grim. View at your own risk!