Yangshuo, Day 3 and 4

Day 3

Last night there was a brutal storm. huge thunder claps, lightening, and torrential rain. I woke early again for tai ji practice, and it had just about stopped. Making my way to the park I saw how much rain had really fallen. The lake was almost running over its banks. I found a quiet spot on an ornamental dragon boat in the center of the lake, and worked through Yang and Chen forms again. I was alone in the park as there weren't many covered areas. The boat was attached to a very private rock and bamboo garden. If we were staying longer, this would be my practice spot. 

With the help of our hotel in Yangshuo, we made our way to the boat that would take us from Guilin to Yangshuo, 3 hours down river. Normally this would be a 4 hour trip, but the river was running fast due to all the extra water from the nights rain. The scenery was incredible, often appearing as if someone had painted it. The weather went from misty to sunny, couldn't have been better. 

Upon landing we made our way to the Tea Cozy resort outside of Yangshuo, and once again well-rested, we went straight out for an adventure. We walked along the Yulong River for a few kilometers until we reached Da Shi Zhai village. We found a sweet little temple up on a hill devoted to Quanyin and local deities. We said our hallelujah's and lit incense. There aren't a lot of temples here in Guilin county, but I'm hoping we can visit the largest temple, Jianshan, before we leave. 

We walked back to the hotel, took naps, and had an amazing meal at the hotel restaurant before crashed into bed. 

Day 4

I woke before the sunrise and walked down to the local basketball court to practice this morning. No one else was practicing there, and I got some strange looks, but it was fun. We decided to go to Bai Shi town today for the big farmer's market, and it was huge. All manner of food, herbs, kitchen products, and clothes were for sale. The highlight being fresh local herbs for sale. It was a bit of a struggle to identify all of them in their raw, unprocessed state, but a huge learning experience for sure. We bought some tea, and then a quick scooter ride to the Dragon Bridge, where we hopped on bamboo rafts for the ride home. It was a lazy, slow cruise with more beautiful scenery. 

The afternoon brought us to downtown Yangshuo where we shopped, drank tea and coffee, and played tourist. The coolest thing that Yangshuo has to offer, which I have rarely seen in China, are homemade jiu's, Chinese wines and liquor infused with herbs. Some are just for flavor, others for medicinal purposes. We sampled many jiu during the day, but the best jiu came after dinner. We settled on a well reviewed spot called Cloud 9, but none of the reviews we saw mentioned the homemade wines they had here, all from a family recipe, and of course made locally. Melody had a shan zha rice wine said to aid digestion, and I had a snake rice wine for bone and joint health. It had been aged for 6 years, and contained 3 snakes along with other Chinese herbs. It was insanely strong, a lot like grappa, but gave me a pretty good boost of energy. 

After some more nighttime strolling we crashed back at the hotel, and prepared for our next 2 days in Yangshuo….