“Where are you going for the June holiday?” I ask my friend Heather. It is a question I shall ask and be asked dozens of times over the next couple of weeks. It will then be followed by, “What did you do over the holiday?” These are variations of the same questions I have been asking, and have been asked since coming to Shanghai. I have been here for eight months and in that time we have had five separate holiday breaks, and we still have a couple to go before we return home. Because we are so close to the exotic we want to make the most of our time here and that means traveling.
It seems we are always either traveling somewhere, recovering from having just traveled, or preparing to head out to someplace new. Four weekends ago we went to Hangzhou, the weekend after that we went to Yangshuo, and we just got back from a long weekend in Hong Kong/Macau. It is as exciting as it is exhausting. Sometimes I feel half of these diaries are just me talking about where we've been. I'll give the readers a break concerning the last couple, but Yangshuo was so amazing it simply needs to be talked about.
Avoiding the 24-hour train ride we opted for a plane to Guilin followed by a long cab ride to Yangshuo proper. We arrived there well into the evening hours and so we found our hotel and hit the bed without seeing a thing. In the morning we had breakfast in the hotel and then strolled out into the streets. Wow! Holy crap, it is beautiful. The mountains peak right above the city. I had expected the need to travel outside of town a bit to see the beauty, but no, it is right here outside the hotel.
A few meters from our front door also lies the river. The views from there were nothing short of spectacular. This is the very definition of the word “exotic.” The views are nothing like I have seen before. It is other-wordly. The mountains are more like giant spikes jutting out randomly throughout the countryside. They are covered in trees, vines, moss, and rocks so they look like some weirdly organized alien life form. The river winds and curls in between creating spectacular scenes these eyes haven't seen since the Grand Canyon.
Article comments
1 - Juliann Mitchell
Mat, thanks for a very interesting glimpse into your trip to Yangshou. The mud caves fascinated me. It all sounds so exotic and different than life here in the States. Enjoy!
2 - Mat Brewster
You are welcome, Juliann. Thanks for reading. You can read more about my adventures in China by clicking on the "shanghai diaries" feature link just below my bio.
The mud caves were lots of fun. The water was freezing, and it was weird being watched by so many people, but fun none the less.