I have yet to see a wookie.

While Yangshuo is pretty well known in China, I feel "the place where they filmed Kashyyyk for Star Wars Episode 3" may be the fastest way to give people a picture of what it looks like. It's a small town about an hour south of Guilin, completely surrounded by tall, nearly vertical mountains. It's pretty interesting because you can just be walking around and then boom, there's a sheer rock wall as tall as, well, a mountain. It's almost like someone used the landscape tool in Sim City 2000 to just drag a square of land as high as it would go. It's a very unique looking place, so this entry is going to be a little more picture heavy than normal.

To start, the cultural center of the town is West Road. It's not particularly unique by itself, many Chinese cities have "old streets" full of shops and restaurants. This one has a more "Thailand" vibe to it though, full of foreign food and bars with live music - a rare sight in Chinese cities outside of Beijing / Shanghai, and really unheard of for a small town. We got some German food for lunch, and was a bit blown away to find a stream through the road, which ended into a waterfall near the river. I can see why this place has a reputation, because it is quite beautiful. And we're only getting started.

 

 

 

 

 

The next day we rented a bike to go out to Shi Li Hua Lang, which is like a national park known for a mountain with a hole in it. The ride there was pretty, but a bit nerve racking being Ella's passenger. Maybe it's how exposed I was on the back of the scooter, or the mood I was in that day, but I was really not loving it. Fortunately the mountain is beautiful, and is a nice 30 minute hike to the top. It reminded me of my mountain hiking days in Taipei, where you're always greeted with a wonderful view of the town below. Funnily enough, President Nixon walked the same trail during his trip to China in the 70s, and so they named it "Nixon Trail". Per the information, he asked if the Chinese made the hole in the mountain by shooting a missile at it.

 

Nixon was weird ya'll.

 

Another stop on the list was actually a village about 30 minutes away. Yes, we went from a huge city, to a smaller city, to a town, to a village. Xingping is not known by name, but everyone across China is quite familiar with it, as it is the site of the picture on the back of the 20 yuan note. (Then again, in ten years probably nobody will remember what a "note" is. Seriously, I touch cash maybe once every few years.) But regardless of why we're here, this is seriously one of the most beautiful places I've been. I don't know where in my previous Top 10+1 list it would fall, but it was really awesome and nice to see. After lunch, we took a boat up the river to take in some more views. Along the way, a guy in a bamboo raft came along side, suddenly boarded our boat, and offered the chance to take a photo with his birds for 5 yuan (~$0.80). I do not know why this dude makes his living this way. However, I do like photos of me in ridiculous situations, and "paid bamboo pirate a buck to hold his birds" has got to be up there. So, here's some photos of this place, along with, I think, one of the best photos I've ever taken.

 

The note in question.

 

The site it's supposedly from, with some liberties.

 

 

 

I really like this picture.

So this is the point where we were going to go home, but of course, something had to go wrong. Ella's health code suddenly changed to red for entering an area in Shanghai that day... which meant we were stuck. For anyone not familiar with China - you need health codes now to travel (and sometimes to enter places). Red means that you were in a high-risk area, as in an area with someone who tested positive for COVID. However, this was certainly a mistake, because A) Obviously, we were not currently in Shanghai B) We had not been to that part of town, or even that district, in even longer, and C) My code was still green, and we've never not been together. So inevitably, this meant bureaucracy and waiting a day for it to get sorted. A slightly annoying hiccup, but eventually, after filling out forms and waiting, it all worked out. That meant an extra torturous day of coffee and food in a very beautiful place. Could definitely do worse.