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.