Yangshuo Things to Do

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The West Walking Street is the main pedestrian street in Yangshuo's tourist district. During the day it is fairly laid back, with people hanging out at cafes and tourists exploring the various shops selling clothes and souvenirs. After dark, it turns into a loud andc crowded party district, with dozens of bars and discos cranking out music late into the night.

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One of the best things to do in Yangshuo is to rent a bicycle and go for a ride through the countryside surrounding the city. There are a number of places to rent bikes. It will take about 10-15 minutes to ride out of the city, which is the hardest part due to the chaotic traffic. Once you are into the countryside, things get more fun due to less traffic and great scenery. You can ride for hours through rice fields and small villages that fill the valleys between the area's jagged mountains.

There are a number of places along the way where you can stop for drinks and snacks. We had lunch at a rural bed & breakfast about 10 km outside the city. You can also stop and do some hiking (but bring a bike lock).

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The Liu Sanjie Impressions Show is a huge river-based theatrical performance staged every night in an outdoor ampitheater on the banks of the Li River in Yangshuo. The show has a cast of hundreds and was choreographed by Zhang Yimou, who also choreographed the performances for the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics. It is based on the legendary story of Liu Sanjie, a local girl from a river village who is fought over by good and bad young men. The performance uses the local mountains and river as background. Many of the actors are on boats, in addition to the land-based cast. We loved the way that the show blended music, costumes, scenery, actors, boats, lighting, and fabric to create interesting scenes and visuals.

There's a language school called Omeida that has really good, flexible Chinese classes. They offer intensive programs where classes are held in the morning and afternoon or just regular half day classes. The classes are all really small -definitely no more than 8, but often as few as 3 allowing students plenty of opportunity to ask questions and practice.

The school connects students studying Chinese with the students studying at their English college as "language buddies," which is helpful for one on one pronunciation. They also do weekly social nights and activities on the weekend (rock climbing, kayaking, cycling) making it easier for students to get out and enjoy the surroundings.

I did the intensive program for one month and found it really worthwhile. I came in knowing no Chinese and by the end was able to hold a basic conversation. This made the rest of my traveling much easier and way more of an experience. I could actually talk to the people around me and that was really cool.

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.