Yangshuo: Rice Terraces

On Monday I went on an overnight trip to the village of Ping An, about 3 hours northwest of Yangshuo. Ping An is a Zhuang minority village that is known for super steep rice terracing - the terraces are so steep and narrow that the farmers can't use machinery or even buffalo to plow their fields.

 

I could have taken public buses to get to Ping An, but this would have involved switching buses two times, so instead I went with a tour from Yangshuo. Most people do this as a one-day trip, but I chose to go with the tour on Monday, but then spend the night on my own and take the next day's tour bus back on Tuesday.

 

The travel agency where I booked my ticket didn't fully describe the tour, so I didn't know what I was getting myself into....but overall, the tour aspect of the trip was quite interesting, and nothing I'd ever want to do again. I had thought it'd be a small group going to Ping-An, but instead I was on a large bus with mostly Chinese tourists. My guide was nice, but her English was very hard to understand, especially since she was speaking into a microphone at the front of the bus. For the first half of the bus ride, they played an American horror movie on the TV, which had lots of blood and gory torture bits in it. I was able to block out most of the sound since I had my ipod with me. Then as we approached the hills near Ping-An, the tour guide told us about the Yao minority village where we'd be stopping before Ping-An.

 

At the Yao village, we had the option of watching a 30 minute show for an extra 60 RMB (the tour operator hadn't mentioned this either). I decided not to bother, which was good because one of the Chinese tourists on the bus who did see it told me afterwards that it wasn't worth it. We had to walk a bit to get to the Yao village, and our guide got off the bus first and held up a flag for us to follow! At this point I checked my watch, happy that at 3 PM I would be rid of the tour group forever!

 

The Yao women grow their hair really long, which is kinda cool to see I guess. From what I could understand, they only cut it three times: when they get married, when they have a child....and some other time too? I think I wasn't paying that much attention. But the traditional wooden architecture in the village was cool, and the air was clean and cool in the hills.

 

After the Yao village, we continued in a different bus up a super-windy road to Ping An. It was quite hazy, so the views weren't quite like the postcards, but the terraces were still impressive. We all had lunch at a restaurant in the town - the local specialty is bamboo rice and bamboo chicken - a hollow piece of bamboo is filled with food, then cooked over a wood fire. Both were quite tasty. By the time lunch ended, my tour group only had about 1 hour to spend hiking up to the different viewpoints before heading back to Yangshuo, so I was glad that I had extra time. I said bye to the group, then went to find the hostel that was recommended by my friends in Yangshuo - one of them had already called to reserve a room for me.

 

After settling into my room, and having a bit more lunch (the owner of the hostel suggested I try the local smoked bacon, so I did!), I latched on to an Intrepid tour group and went with them on a hike to the viewpoints above the town.

 

The Intrepid group had a local guide with them too, which was nice because he spoke very good English and knew a lot. The views were pretty cool, and it was nice to be able to hike with other people, even though the hike was short. The scenery reminded me a lot of Ecuador near the Black Sheep Inn - misty hills, farmers carrying vegetables, terraced landscapes. Ping An also has wooden architecture which is cool looking, so I took a bunch of pictures.

 

For dinner, I tried a local restaurant where I met and American guy named Jesse who just finished the SIT study abroad program in Vietnam. We shared some grilled beef, pumpkin w/ ginger and some fried noodles and chatted for a while. There are no real roads in Ping-An, only stone pathways and staircases that wind up and down the steep landscape, so in the dark it took us a while to find the correct path back to our hotels (he was staying in a hostel just next to mine).

 

We made a plan to meet up the next morning for a longer hike, but during the night a storm blew in, and by morning the town was fogged in and it was raining quite hard. We had breakfast of noodle soup instead of hiking, and then Jesse headed back to Guilin. As I walked back to the hostel, I noticed a wooden building with a big cauldron of liquid - I said hello to the man inside, then went in to discover that he was making tofu.

 

I ran back to the hostel to get my phrasebook and camera, and I watched the man make tofu for about 20 minutes. He explained some of the process to me, but since I barely speak Chinese, we were mostly limited to sign language and numbers. He heated soymilk over a wood fire in a huge wok, then poured that into buckets to mix with the rennet (or whatever the tofu equivalent is called), and then into the mold and press once the curds/whey had separated. All the waste from the process went to his pigs, who were making a commotion in a pen below the building. It was cool to see tofu being made, mostly using the same processes that people in the village have used for hundreds (thousands?) of years.

 

I spent the rest of the morning reading and writing, and after some lunch, I headed down to find my bus back to Yangshuo. Because of the rain, we ended up leaving early, which was nice - and this time we were in a mini-bus instead of a big bus, and there were only 6 other passengers. So the ride went more quickly too.

 

I was back in Yangshuo in time for dinner. Kelly had invited some other people over, so we had a very nice feast! I joked that it was in honor of my return! We had: steamed tilapia w/ ginger and soy sauce, sauteed crayfish, sauteed shrimp, bok choi, bamboo shoots, chicken soup with ginseng and ginger, and a whole sauteed duck! There might have been some other things too. Food that I eat with Kelly and Leo tends to be better than everything else I've had in this area - so I am gonna miss being here and eating good food all the time. I only have 4 more days in Yangshuo now....so I am off to make the most of it!

Yangshuo: Biking

I went on a long bikeride last week. I didn't begin with the intention of taking a long bikeride - I thought I'd be gone just one hour. I started heading north from the village where I'm living, along a dirt road that brought me through some other small villages and lots of rice paddies and fields. When I connected back with a main road, part of me wanted to turn around, since it was threatening rain and I had no umbrella or raincoat, but I was biking through new territory, farther from Yangshuo than I had ever journeyed, so I was tempted by the unknown around every corner.

 

So I kept going. I turned onto a different paved road that led up toward the hills, where I saw a few more villages and lots of orange orchards. It started getting hilly - and with my one-speed bike, I had to walk up some of the steep parts. At this point I could see on my map that there was a village wthin striking distance, although I am not sure if I ever really made it to the village - at one point I tried to ask some people where I was, but the language barrier was too tough, even with my map (which had town names in Chinese and English). But eventually I came to an intersection with signs in English - I could go back the way I came, or take a right turn to loop back a different way to Yangshuo.

 

At this point I met some other tourists who were also biking (and also a bit lost). We chose the new loop back to Yangshuo, which ended up being the best part of the ride. We went up and down lots of rolling hills - had some views of rice teraces at first, and then TONS of orange orchards - the scenery at some points almost looked like California, and it looked completely different from Yangshuo, which at this point was only 12 km away.

 

The last part of the ride was all downhill, which was excellent - down a winding road into the valley, and then into the center of Yangshuo. Overall, the bikeride was about 35 km.

 

What struck me most about this adventure was that the countryside here goes on forever. From Yangshuo I could bike in any direction, mostly on dirt roads or narrow paved roads, and go from village to village - the scenery changes quite quickly, but it goes on and on for hundreds of miles. When I was biking, I had an urge to keep going, because I feared that if I turned around, I'd miss out on the great view that was just around the next bend.

 

Now I have a few more days to explore Yangshuo, and I hope to do some exploring like this when I'm in Yunnan next week.

 

 

 

 

Yangshuo: A Visit to McDonald's

The McDonald's in Yangshuo just opened four months ago. I decided I ought to try it, for the sake of anthropological research. So I dragged Leo there with me and I ordered the cheeseburger combo meal.

 

The combo meal consisted of a cheeseburger (topped w/ pickle, ketsup, mustard and mayo), a small order of fries, and a medium drink (I chose Coke). Also, one packet of ketsup for the fries. Unlike most Chinese ketsup I've had, this was dark and tomatoey, very similar to Heinz in the US - while other ketsups are lighter and sweeter and more like duck sauce.

 

Pippy (the poodle) was with us, and Leo was asked to take her outside (this is so far the only establishment that hasn't allowed her to come in and sit next to us while we ate). So we ate at a table outside - Leo and I split the burger and fries. He didn't like the burger very much.

 

Everything tasted pretty much how it tastes in the US. The burger was tasty, but gave me that weird post-McDonald's feeling I often get after fast food - kinda blah. The fries were too salty, but again this pretty much matches their taste in the US. The coke was good - not sure if it is made with sugar or corn syrup here. This meal cost 18 yuan, which is a bit less than 3 US dollars - not very cheap considering that a noodle soup breakfast costs 3 yuan.

 

Before leaving, we noticed a poster advertising banana pies - 2 for 7 yuan. So we bought two. I haven't had the apple pie at McDonald's in a really long time, but if I remember correctly, this was quite different. It was deep fried instead of baked. And it was actually really good. The pie was fried perfectly - not too greasy, and a nice crispy crust. Inside, the banana filling wasn't too sweet, and was nice and hot - the whole thing tasted quite fresh. If someone at a fancy dim-sum restaurant had served me this same dish, I probably would have been impressed. I have no idea how natural or unnatural the ingredients are, but this is certainly a McDonald's item I've never seen in the US and it was well executed. I'd eat it again.

I felt weird eating at McDonald's. But it is really interesting to see how the phenomenon can spread all over the world, and be so successful in a place like Yangshuo. With so many tourists all the time, I'm sure they will do very well.

Yangshuo: Shampoodle

I just got back from getting a haircut and wash. Kelly got her hair washed as well, and Leo was there to take some pictures. I was holding Pippy since Kelly was getting her hair rinsed, and I thought I looked pretty ridiculous, getting a shampoo while holding a poodle. So I asked Leo to take a picture.

Yangshuo: Party Cruise

Four days ago I went on a walk up the hill behind the market - the entrance to the trail is just behind Leo and Kelly's house, and from there a staircase leads straight up the mountain. The climb took me about 25 minutes, and at the top there was a fence with a sign saying "Do Not Enter," but the gate was open, so I went in anyway. I saw nobody at all on the hike or at the top. The views of the city below were great.

Three nights ago I went on a party cruise on the Li River to celebrate Tim's birthday. He's an Australian who manages the bar that we always go to. I went with my friend Vivian and also met lots of local expats and teachers. The boat just went up and down the river a bit, and I couldn't see much of the scenery since it was dark. But we took lots of photos, including some that ended up with double images since so many flashes were going off at once.

Yangshuo: Breakfast

On most days, I go to the market early in the morning, so I get an early breakfast either before or after the shopping, and before the cooking classes begin.

 

The typical breakfast foods in Yangshuo are steamed buns and 'mee fan' (rice noodle soup). Both can be found everywhere, even in small villages.

 

There are three places I regularly visit for mee fan. Pam introduced me to the small place in Yima, a village between my house and Yangshuo. Their noodle soups cost 2.5 RMB (about 35 cents) and they are my favorite. Already cooked rice noodles are heated up in boiling water, then drained a placed in a bowl. Next comes chopped meat (I always get roast pork here, and this might be all they have), then pickled green beans and bamboo shoots, crunchy peanuts, a drizzle of a soy-based sauce, and a drizzle of another sauce (salt + oil?) and then a ladleful of broth (pork based). Everything is garnished with fresh chopped scallions, and at the place in Yima, they also put on some bits of fried crispy donut.

 

Every place has a different variation of this soup. At one place in the market, where Pam also brought me, they use soybeans instead of peanuts, and you get to choose your own condiments - they have about 6 kinds of pickles, plus chili flakes of various heat levels....you also get to spoon your own broth into your bowl, so if you want drier noodles, it's an option. Probably this could be done anywhere, but since I don't know how to say that in Chinese, getting to do it myself allows more flexibility.

 

Kelly and Leo prefer a different place in the market, where Kelly always gets soup with kidney and liver. I usually get roast pork here too, but one time I tried the beef tendon which was delicious as well. Both shops in the market have the option of rounded noodles or flat noodles, though it seems like in most places the round noodles are the default. The condiments at Kelly and Leo's favorite place are the best - they have a tomato based salsa (tastes a lot like Mexican salsa) that usually is gone by mid-morning, and they have very nice pickled cucumbers too. The payment system is different here too, since they are quite busy. You first buy a token from a lady outside the shop, then you give the token to the woman serving soup - so if you don't know the system, it can be confusing (luckily Kelly taught me how it works the first time I went, but I saw some Chinese tourists getting all confused).

There are tons of places to get noodle soups - probably over 100 places just in Yangshuo - so I have hardly tried any. But the spot in Yima is my favorite of all of the soup places I've tried - the balance of flavor in the soup is just right; not too salty, not too pickly, not too spicy and not too oily. I also really like their steamed buns, which are two for 1 yuan. In Yima they have three kinds of steamed buns - bao zi: red bean, black sesame and peanut. I like the red bean, but the black sesame and peanut ones are the best - there is only a small amount of filling, and they are mixed with a bit of sugar. I am usually there pretty early, so the buns are fresh and the filling is hot. Really good.

In the market and throughout town there are other kinds of buns - filled with black bean paste, red bean paste, sesame, peanut or pork. There are other types that look like cinnamon buns, but instead of cinnamon it's sweet soy sauce and scallions, so it's savory rather than sweet. Then there are plain buns (no filling), but I don't like these as much. In the market there is a place that sells miniature pork buns - the filling tastes like a dumpling filling (not roast pork - char siu - which is common in Cantonese steamed buns) - and these are four for 1 yuan.

So I frequently buy buns to eat for breakfast in addition to a noodle soup.

Last week, I discovered a new quasi-local breakfast, and I've had it three times now. It's a stand on my way to the market that is run by a guy from Guangdong Province. He has a special steamer to make rice noodle rolls that are a common Cantonese breakfast, although this contraption is a bit more primitive than the rice noodle steamers they had in Hong Kong and Guangzhou. A plate of these costs 3 yuan. To make the rice noodle rolls, they oil a metal tray and then spoon on some liquid rice milk. They top this with scallions, beat up egg, and a bit of lettuce, and then the tray is pushed into the steamer for about 2 minutes. When the tray is pulled out, the rice milk has turned into a white slippery noodle, and they scrape it off the tray and serve it with sweet soy sauce and a salsa made with fresh green chilies. A plate consists of two trayfuls of noodle, with 1 whole egg in the mix. Even though this breakfast isn't common here, it's still local prices and a nice break from noodle soup on days when I'm not in the mood.

So that is breakfast! I often drink coffee as well - the tourist places in town have good coffee, but we also make good coffee in the French press at the cooking schools, so I often just make it myself or have it with the women who work in the kitchen at the school. I once sat at a nice cafe by the river and had a fancy drip coffee for 28 yuan - it was a very nice cup of Yunnan coffee, but it was quite funny that it cost me 7 times more than what I spent on breakfast. More normal price for a good cup of coffee is 12 yuan at a cafe, where I often get to use the internet for free as well.

Hopefully I'll take some pictures of breakfast dishes soon. More soon!
 

Yangshuo: Breaking News: DMP is Not Sick of Chinese Food

Food in China is really good. I have been in Asia for more than 3 weeks, and out of all my meals (approximately 65-80 depending on how you define "meal") only about 5 have been non-Chinese food. And almost everything I've eaten here has been quite good.

 

While I have eaten a lot of local food, I have also eaten plenty of foods from different Chinese regions - Hunan food in Guangzhou, Cantonese and Shanghainese food in Yangshuo, etc. But even in a smaller town like Yangshuo, there is a huge variety of dishes that can be found, and even more that can be prepared using ingredients from the market.

 

So in case anyone was worried that I was getting sick of the food in China, worry no longer. "Chinese Food" is such a broad category that I think it would be impossible for me to get sick of it.

 

Yangshuo: Chelsee's Pictures Part II

Here are some more pictures from Chelsee.

1) Sally steaming the chicken dish at the cooking school.

2) Choosing BBQ meats at the night market in Yangshuo.

3) Me buying mushrooms and pumpkin flowers from the stand in the market. I always buy mushrooms, black fungus and pumpkin flowers from this woman.

4) The woman at the market weighing the black fungus. We use this in the Yangshuo style sweet and sour pork recipe!

Yangshuo: Chelsee's Pictures Part I

Leo and I copied some of Chelsee's pictures onto my computer yesterday before they left.

Here are a few - again, I'm not sure which order they will load in.

1) Chelsea and Richard toasting cashews at the cooking school.

2) Right after my bike broke. Richard is the one on the bicycle in the photo, and I am in front of him on the back of a motorbike, with my bicycle also on the motorbike. We are going through a big intersection which is the only traffic light in Yangshuo.

3) Kelly, Leo, Me and Richard at a chicken restaurant on the outskirts of town. They only make two dishes: chicken stir fry and chicken soup. We only had the stir fry, which is an entire chicken cut up and fried with a blend of spices and other ingredients (tasted ginseng, chinese dates, ginger, star anise, garlic). We had planned to get the soup too, but then Kelly suggested we go to a different restaurant for fish instead.

4) Kelly, David and Leo eating at the fish restaurant. Here we chose a live fish (carp) from the tank - then they wonked it on the head, sliced it up, fried it in pieces and served it in a big wok on a hotplate on the table. The fish was in a broth, along with lots of pickled vegetables, tofu balls, fresh tofu, green onions, tomato, and ginger....so it simmered a bit more on the table as we ate. The entire wok-ful of fish, plus unlimited rice, cost a total of 64 yuan, which is about 10 dollars. It was a ton of food for the 5 of us.

In a previous post I spelled Chelsee's name incorrectly. I can't fix it until I'm back in the US though....so Chelsee, I apologize!

Yangshuo: A Bad Day for Biking

After Pam left on Monday, I started using her bike to go around town - and yesterday, like usual, I took it to the market in the morning. Yesterday was a nice day finally, after about 4 days of rain. I did the shopping, sent the food back on a motorbike, then got some breakfast of noodle soup, then went to use the internet for a little bit before meeting up with the cooking school class. After going through the market with the cooking class again, I came back to where I parked the bike it was gone! (the back wheel was locked to the frame, but not to any solid object - but this is the same way Pam and I lock our bikes every day). I called Leo to come down and ask the people who were selling things nearby if they had seen anything, but everyone said they hadn't. I was pretty bummed out that the bike got stolen.

 

I got a ride back to the school in a van with the class - I participated yesterday so I could try out the duck dish which is the one dish I hadn't cooked yet. Then after class, I went over to the hostel nearby the school to rent a bike. I got a mountain bike, similar to the one I had during my first few days here. But when I headed into town later in the day, I noticed the back gears kept slipping - something seemed weird with the contraption that moves the chain between the gears.

 

I went to the market again with the afternoon class (I've now started leading tours of the market when there are big groups - this is a bit weird, because I feel like people who pay for a cooking class in China don't want an white American guy leading their tours of the market - but at the same time, going in a group of 8 is not as good as going in two groups of 4.....and I know what everything is at this point, so I think I do a pretty good job at explaining things and showing everyone around - plus my English is excellent :). But it's an interesting dilemma - back to the authenticity question here too: is it an authentic tour of the market if it's led by me?)

 

After the market, I hung out in town for a bit before meeting up w/ Richard and Chelsea, and American couple I met at the cooking school. Our plan was to bikeride back to Chaolong (where i live) to eat at the restaurant next to my house. The cook there is named Xiao Feng and she makes excellent homestyle food - when Pam and I ate there, we told her to just make whatever she wanted, and we did the same last night, with a special request for ma-po tofu (the best version I've ever had).

 

But anyway, on the way out of town, my chain was slipping down the gears again, and then I downshifted on the gearshift and suddently the whole gear changer on the back wheel flipped up and got caught in the wheel, causing the bike to suddently stop. It was very broken. Luckily I was right in town, and the guy who is one of my normal motortaxi drivers was right there......so Chelsea and Richard continued on their bikes, and meanwhile we tied my very broken bike onto the back of the motorbike, and I hopped on too, and I got a ride back to Chaolong.

 

Last night after dinner I rented yet another bike from the hostel, this time just a simple 1 gear bike - it's not very good, but it does the trick of getting to the market and back, so it will do. And hopefully no one will want to steal it!

 

Today it's raining again - but it looks like it *might* be clearing up. We'll see. More soon.