Yangshuo Tourist Traps

Let start by saying I love trees. I like unique and beautiful trees. This park is 18Y and is basically one tree. Very few trees in the world are worth that much money to see and this is not one of them.

Unique Suggestions: Use their bathrooms which are some of the few around.

Fun Alternatives: Their are lots of tree around Yangshuo you can see for free. Rest under one with 18Y of alcohol and you'll have a much better time.

Being ripped off as soon as you arrive is not a good start.

Unique Suggestions: Please be aware that the moment you arrive in China - you need your haggling hat on. You need to haggle over the price of basically everything. It is part of their culture and when you get to know the country people you start to understand why they have to do this.

A rough guide is to pay no more than half of what they initailly tell you, often about one third is more accurate.

The haggling begins at the airport. For those that fly into Guilin and are heading to Yangshuo - you can get a bus to the guilin bus station and then another bus to yanghsuo. But if you have a lot of luggage and arrive at night a taxi is the best option. Locals pay anywhere between 150 - 200 yuan. Don't pay any more than about 220 yuan. They will probably start bargaining at about 350 yuan. Be tough or you will become an instant sucker.

Fun Alternatives: If you have pre-booked accomodation or any activities in Yangshuo - call the hotel or company and get them to organise the taxi.

If you are really scared, look up VT member 'Yangers' who is a local in Yangshuo and I am sure he would love to help if you drop him an email.

Last alternative - if you have loads of money, just pay! I love the chinese people. I often use to haggle for a while just to get practice but then I would pay more than they even asked. Those extra few dollars meant very little to me compared to what it meant to them. If all else fails, follow your heart.

The Li river and Yangshuo area are known for their Cormorant fishing - fishermen who work at night, from small bamboo boat, having Cormorants with tied throats do the fishing for them.

It's a very interesting tradition, and for 50 Yuan per person you can actually join a Cormorant fisherman. However, what you will see is not the real thing (which nobody really cares to mention...). You will see a show - you'll join about 5 more turists on a boat, a fisherman will wait for you in his boat, and for about 10 minutes (and not an hour as they will tell you), you will see him demonstrating his technic: he'll through fish into the water, in almost total darkness, the birds will catch them, and he'll take the fish from their throats.

All in all, it's still interesting and pretty nice to see, but just be sure - this isn't the real thing. It's a show. The fishermen really start working only at around 22:00. Until then, they give shows to the tourists.

A lot of travelers through China have Yangshuo on their list, okay I admitt, it is nice, but it's soooo touristic, it almost looks like a european town with all the western food and cafes.

Unique Suggestions: If you decide to go there I can recommend renting a bike and just go, we ended up biking in the middle of the ricefields, taking a swim in a clear lake, biking through tiny villages with friendly, smiling people. These biketrips are one of the fondest memories of my travels through China.

A collegue of mine told me we were invited for a BBQ near "Moon Hill" with a group of (mostly female) English students. Hmmm, sounds great! On the way there we found out it were not English students, but Chinese students, studying English. Whatever, still a female majority. When we got there we were welcomed by a big group of 10 year old kids, saying Helloooooooooooooo!!!!!!! Hey, where are the stu...... oh gosh, they meant pupils.... Trapped!!!