Yangshuo Extension: Old Town, Country Life, Tea Plantation

Itinerary

• Day 1: Yangshuo - Huangyao

  Drive out of Yangshuo for about two hours to arrive in Huangyao, a thousand years old fortress-like town boasting of its time-honored theater, stone bridges, old-style houses, and ancestral halls. At the entrance of the old town, you can also visit the former site of the CPC Guangxi Province Committee for some knowledge of the Chinese Communist Party.

  In the afternoon, get to a Hakka-style farmhouse in a picturesque setting. There, you will taste authentic Hakka cuisine and reminisce about the country life that is going away: picking seasonal fruits or vegetables in the garden, helping the host sowing or fertilizing, or building a simple stove with earth clods to roast chicken or sweet potatoes, sinking into a bamboo chair to enjoy the sunset and the distant mountains with a cup of tea in hand, or play mahjong in the old house like the locals do in slack season. It seems the time has slowed down here.

  • L D
  • Huangyao Ancient Town

• Day 2: Huangyao - Yangshuo

  Have a fresh morning before the farmyard breakfast. Then a 1.5- hour scenic drive will take you to the Nanshan tea plantation, only about three kilometers out of the county town of Zhaoping but seems far away from the madding crowd. Here, you can not only enjoy the scenic tea field and mountains but also try tea-plucking and tea-processing in traditional ways. At the foot of the tea mountain, two rows of ranch houses lie quietly. They were the dormitory for the educated urban youth working in the countryside between the 1960s and 1970s. There you will see the necessities of their daily life and the slogans from Chairman Mao.

  After descending from the mountain, taste the local cuisine at a boat restaurant and then drive about 2.5 hours back to Yangshuo.

  • B L