Yangshao

Due to indecisiveness, I didn’t take the river cruise to Yangshao. Instead I took a bus to Guilin South bus station before taking another bus to Yangshao.

At Yangshao, I optimistically expected to come up with some great ideas as to how to enjoy the Li river but as half the day was already gone, a lot of those options were no longer viable.

I settled on visiting Fuli, a small town known for its Chinese painted fans.

I failed to find the bus that went there and so ended up on a small red vehicle truck/car thing.

It was a very bumpy ride.

Essentially there is only 1 street that lives up to its nickname as the hometown of painted fans, which is the town’s Ancient street.

As I wandered around, I stumbled upon an art studio, which provides “make your own fan” sessions – mainly for Western tourists. (Chinese tourists hover around the Western tourists painting with their phone camera in action)

So I had a go. This may not be an “authentic” experience but it was a nice way to spend the afternoon.

The teachers help you practice and give advice before actually painting on the fan.

Once it’s done, they prepare the fan for you:

Finished result !! (Almost)

(They also wrote my name and some other stuff, which I didn’t understand)

I took the bus back to Yangshuo, preciously keeping my fan close to me (They put it in a box, you have to wait for the glue to stick)

Also bought myself some food on the way:

(The brioche with bacon thing tasted good)

Back at the hotel, I took a break with an iced coffee. 😎

I also found a clue as to how it got the reviews it did.

(The hotel isn’t that bad, just not that good either)

I then took a shuttle bus to the San LiuJei light show.

(Sorry, my phone camera isn’t great in night mode)

The show is 1 hour long. Reviews are fairly mixed on it, there’s no story but it was pretty. My favourite review was one where the person said that no matter how much they shushed the audience, people kept talking. This gives quite a funny mental picture of 1 foreigner trying to shush 3000 Chinese tourists. 😂

I liked the show but it is probably best enjoyed by families with relatively young kids.

On the way out, I tried to go souvenir shopping again and bought myself some street food tofu. These are sold everywhere and taste good but are a little spicy.

Found a shop selling live painted turtles…

It started to pour with rain so I went back to the hotel, grabbing a dragon egg-looking pastry on the way.
I have no idea what it was, bought it at a bakery nearby.