Amazing Yangshuo, Guangxi Province, China

Geoff, a Couchsurfer we met in Tokyo wrote us about the Zhuoyue English College in Yangshuo. He suggested we go there and volunteer. As the English College is on Couchsurfing as well, we checked it out, applied and got accepted.

The arrangement was that all 3 of us would lead the 2 hour conversation classes with a small group of Chinese students. In addition we would do 1 presentation and speak with the students during lunch and dinner.

For that we got free accommodation and free food. A cool deal, not only because the tuition was in the evening and we were off the whole day, but also as we got really close to the students and learned more about their lives and their motivations.

We stayed in dormitories with other volunteers.

Petra and Brian

Matthew, Rony and Robin

Ting and Tom

All volunteers, Brian, Petra and their 4 year old Rony from Finland/Estonia were great company, Sonja’s roommate Ting from China, Matthew and Robin’s roommates Chris and Tom from the U.S. were all cool and interesting people in their own way.

Yangshuo is beautiful and very relaxed. It is a rock climbing mecca, there are plenty rental bike shops and loads of other activities. We ended up riding our rental bikes for 2 days on the weekend. Except for the fact that we are not used to sitting on a bike, the scenery is absolutely stunning.

Here are some pictures:

This is a place to come back to. Very nice. Thanks Geoff!