A short 2.5 hour train ride lies Yixing which is a small (by China standards) city lying adjacent to bamboo forests, caves and factories. We were there for the first two offerings.
Arriving in Yixing we hopped on a tourist bus where we were the only foreigners – so stares were abundant and people were willing to talk and ask questions. At this time there was a light misting rain and the countryside was covered in fog (or what we hope was fog and not low lying smog.. although this is China, so both are valid options.) The bamboo forest was nothing short of magical and looked like something from an Asian horror movie/fairytale. Mist draping every tree and spindly bamboo trees popping out in between. We went a little off the trail and hiked up in to the forest, which while a slippery slope up was well worth while. Coming down we explored the area below which contained a lake, temples and pagodas. The lake was a dark algae green and to get from one side to the other we crossed a definitely not sketchy bridge that was on the surface of the water. So every time I took a step, water lapped over my shoes and and the wooden boards were covered. Afterwards we took a cable car to the top of a ‘mountain’ which on a non foggy day would have offered spectacular views but today the temple at the top was shrouded in fog.
After the bamboo forest we went to a cave which was more theatrical that we had imagined. We had imagined a small cave in a mountain but what we got was a large cave with lights hi lighting different points that looked more like a setting for a rave than an ancient cave. We took a gondala style boat through the river and the cave and arrived at the exist. Once through the cave we were treated to a gorgeous cascading waterfall bordered by a pagoda.
In the evening we headed back to the main city where we enjoyed hotpot with such fun things as eating brain, tripe, frog and noodles for good measure. Delicious.
Tips:
- Go off the bath in bamboo forest
- Stay overnight in Yixing, cool little city
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