My Trip to the Ancient City of Yangmei, China

I recently traveled through Nanning, China, a medium-sized town on the south border of China, just north of Vietnam. During my short stay there, I visited the nearby ancient city of Yangmei. If you find yourself in this area of China, it is defiantly a must-see. It's over a thousand years old and was quite prosperous, thanks to its waterway transportation system. It still maintains much of its old architecture and has as many as 50,000 people that reside in this old city.

I would like to share just a few of my personal experiences of my travels to this city. You may find that you would like to repeat some of the same sequence of events. On the other hand, some of the things I mention might be the very things to avoid. Whatever the case, I hope this information is to be helpful and encouraging if you make the journey to this destination.

My companions (my husband and two friends) and I set off one morning to travel to Yangmei from Nanning - supposedly about an hours trip. We came to the conclusion that instead hunting down the tourist bus or boat that made daily trips, we would hop in a taxi and get there quickly. We waved one down with no problem. Our taxi driver assured us through gestures that he could get us to the city. So he began weaving through the streets of Nanning, around pedestrians, then off some main roads, through a shadier area of town, and then out in the country with roads curvy enough to make me feel a little bit queasy. He stopped many times during the trip to ask for directions. After well over an hour and 100 Yuen later (it should have been only 40) we finally made it.

We wearily walked up to the entrance and found ourselves surrounded by sweet little old women begging to carry us around on their ox carts - pulled by water buffalos. After a little bargaining, we agreed to give them 50 Yuen for the four of us.

This time the ride was much more enjoyable. We were taken all through the village and took many pictures of cobble-stoned streets and old style buildings that many people still maintained as their homes. There were several booths selling everything from rice to fried fish snacks. Everywhere you looked there were alleys to explore. Plaques were placed on some buildings to read about its historical background. A river displayed many boats that crossed between the city and a nearby island. It was also interesting to see the villagers going about their daily life despite the tourists gawking at them and their surroundings. A few times our guide dropped us off to explore and came back to pick us up a little while later. All in all the tour was worth the long, crazy taxi ride.

To end our trip, we emerged from the city and realized we didn't know how to get back to Nanning. There were no taxis. We had not taken a tour bus in the beginning, so we couldn't hitch a ride with them. We knew nothing of the city bus system. There were no English speakers around. So in desperation we turned to our guide. She didn't speak English either but she seemed to understand our dilemma. She calmly began to build a small fire to keep us warm and handed us bananas to eat. We were not sure if she had a plan on helping us to get back. We were at her mercy.

Suddenly, she jumped up and started running. Startled, we turned around and saw her waving down a bus. With a sigh of relief we boarded thanking her many, many times. We had gotten on the regular city bus that made quite a few stops and even crossed a river on a ferry. But we didn't complain, because an hour in a half and 8 Yuen later we arrived back in Nanning.

If you plan on making this trip, I hope you have better luck in gaining appropriate transportation! But despite our troubles this was a great historic experience that is not over run by a touristy environment. The people of this ancient city were kind and hospitable. I encourage any traveler to take the time to visit this city and soak in the great past that it holds.