Yangshuo Things to Do

Yangshuo is not a big city (by Chinese standards) and, despite being surrounded by steep peaks it's easy to walk around, or to rent a bike.

Some nice spots in the rural area close to the city do deserve a look.

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This a full day daytrip from Yangshuo. Though you can go there by public buses you'd have to change buses a few times and is complicated. So you better book one of the many tours at hotels and agencies.
The minibus leaves early and arrives there in about 1 hour. Then you visit some ethnic minorities, see some mountain villages, have lunch and in the afternoon you visit the famous terraces taht make unbelievable landscapes of ebdless rice terraces.

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This is a rural tiny town in the rice fields north of Yangshuo. You can only get there by bycicle or walking and it's a really interesting visit, as you see how peasants really live in those rural towns, in a kind of community and small houses around the big landowner house.

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This sailing tour is more relaxed and on a softer landscape than the main and more famous LiRiver tour. Mountains are not so high and close but rice filds make a wonderful scenary. You can take the bamboo boats at the Dragon Bridge and go sailing for an hour or two.

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This is a classical half day tour here. Though you can hire the bike for the whole day and have lunch on the fields.
Though in fact you can do it on your own (hire the bike and look at the map) I recommenn you to hire a guide that will take you to the best places and, most important, will be able to read the signs and ask local people in case you get lost!
What I did was hiring the guide at the hotel and she hired the bikes. Take a good hat and sun cream as it gets really hot on the way.
You can go cycling along the rice fields, visit the village of Jiuxian and reach the Dragon Bridge. Then you can continue or just go back to town.

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One of the main attractions here is the Li River with its famous landscapes of rounded mountains. Though the landscape is very nice in Yangshuo, the best part of the river is between Xinping and Yangdi. If you go to Xinping by bus you can hire there a bamboo little boat that will take you up the river for 2 hours. Boats are foe up to 4-6 persons, but I took it on my own and it was a very pleasant afternoon.

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This is a small rural village located a few kilometres at the north of Yangshuo along the river Li.
Its main attraction is being the place where there are the bamboo boats to visit the river.
But the village itself is highly interesting, an old chinese village, not too spolied by tourism (I had to walk about 10 minutes around to find a bar to have a tea) and where you can feel the daily rural life of deep China.
Take your time to wander around slowly and chat with the people (well, by signs, as nobody speaks english there).

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Around Yangshuo we saw the best views of China, with the sun helping to compose "postcard pictures". Each angle, each detail seemed to be the most beautiful... until the next one...

In Yangshuo it is important to go out of town!