Last week we had a friend in town, and instead of show­ing him our usual Guangzhou haunts, we went adventuring.

We decided on a two-day trip to Yang­shuo, about a 6 hour bus ride from Guangzhou. Upon our 5am arrival by bus, bleary-eyed and try­ing to stay some­what dry from the rain, we headed straight to a hos­tel for a few more hours of rest. The next morn­ing as we were walk­ing around, I felt like I had been trans­ported overnight into some mag­i­cal land.

Yang­shuo was con­sid­er­ably colder and wet­ter than the more coastal Guangzhou. But rather than mak­ing the town dreary, the fog cre­ated a beau­ti­ful set­ting for karsts to peak out of, and the rain slicked the stone walk­ways, the gor­geous lan­scape reflect­ing on the tini­est surfaces.