Last year, I went to the second most popular tour spot in China. This year, I come again. I just love this place and their local foods. Yang Shuo, China – A peaceful moment of my life, is the most well known place in China after Xi An, China – Terra-Cotta warriors – A must see historical site. The picture shows you the mountain and river that is well known as the painting on China’s 20 dollar bill.

If you really want to see the beauty of YangShuo, you need to stay in YangShuo. You get the best view in the early morning after raining. You see the smog and cloud mix together between the mountains.

Two of the most famous local foods that you have to try are the beer fish and Guilin Rice Noodle. The beer fish is mixed with beer source, tomato, garlic, onion and most important piece. – FISH. It’s so good that you have to try it. There are many restaurants that serve beer fish. You have to try many of them and find the best you like. They are all cooked differently.

The other most famous foods are the Guilin Rice Noodle. It’s just a special rice noodle with many different ingredients and seasonings to choose from. However, you have to put yourself into local folk’s shoes. I mean that you just need to enjoy the foods and not to pay attention about the cooking environment. In many cases, you are sitting on a very small bench and eating the noodle next to the trash can.

Even that the condition is not very good for tour, Guilin rice noodle does taste so good. Again, every noodle stand use different ingredients. So you have to try different one. Last year, I stayed for about two weeks and tried almost every single place I can find. This year, I only stay for about a week. I am so satisfied.

As you all know that China is a huge country. Even YangShou is the most well known place for seeing China’s beauty. There are many poor people and farmers between cities and tour spot. You often have to take a small bus traveling between tour spots. You will see many farmers doing their work in very old fashion ways. You also see some houses without windows. Many farmers took over 10 years to finish their dream house. They have limited money to build part of the house. So you can see the 2nd and 3rd floor without windows.

If you travel between tour spots quite a bit, you will see this picture more often. Whenever you visit a place in China, you are expected by many local tour guides or hotel brokers. It was a sunny day, many girl tour guides and hotel brokers are waiting for us. It’s very funny to see this the first time. It’s very annoying when you try to pass the crowd. All you hear is “Hotel? Bus? Map? ….” They follow you everywhere. This is one way local people survival.

The reality is this. They follow you to the hotel you booked earlier, you check in the hotel. They get the referral fee. Even they are not the one take you to the hotel, they get something out from the hotel as commission. If you decide to take their offer for a tour or hotel deal, they get paid too. Be aware of the pickpocket. So hold your valuable belongings closer.

Now. When you leave a tour spot by train. You usually see a huge crowd sitting in the waiting room. In many case, the train will leave the station in 10 minutes. You have to fight with thousands traveler to get on the train. So there is one unique service for people who doesn’t want to fight for their seat. A music-tea-waiting-room service charges your RMB$5.00/hour. You have the privilege to get to the train platform earlier. You also have better music, tv and foods station. They are all about $$. However, you will still need to fight for the seat.

You will not surprise that many traveler got no seat in the hard-seat section. They stand 30 hours from the beginning to the end of their journey. Well. You have to know how to survive in China. As a frequent traveler, I always make sure to buy the train ticket earlier. I have never buy hard-seat ticket. I always buy hard-bed ticket.

After all, if you want to try Chinese life in one day, you can just visit YangShou and stay there for few days. You won’t regret!

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