Day Trip from Nanning: Yangmei Village

A water buffalo pulling a small cart of Chinese tourists around Yangmei Village

Last fall I took a day trip out to an old village called Yangmei with some of my co-workers from Guangxi University. It's about 40 minutes outside of Nanning city in a fairly rural area, surrounded by banana farms, orchards and rice fields, and located along a wide river. The village was once a wealthy area, receiving trade along the river, but it has since become more agricultural and lost some of that wealth. It still maintains it's traditional buildings and culture though, which makes it an interesting place to spend an afternoon outside Nanning.

Traditional brick buildings

A traditional style house in Yangmei

One of the many banana farms around the village

The town gets some local tourism, though probably very little foreign tourism, given the wide-eyed reception we received. It's made up of buildings with traditional architecture, including a few that are genuinely old. There is one traditional home that is open to the public and you can take a walk through it for free. The thick stone walls do an impressive job of holding out the Nanning heat.

One of the oldest houses in Yangmei

Beautiful wooden paneling on the old buildings in Yangmei Village

There is also an old Confucian shrine in town that you can visit. I went up to take a photo and was immediately approached by an old woman who handed me some incense, showed me how to place it before the altar, and then promptly asked for a few kuai (RMB) in exchange, which I didn't mind paying. Down by the river was another interesting statue that some local guys explained was important to the town. Apparently whenever something bad happened, like a flood or in one case a Japanese invasion, the town people would carry the statue around to pray for help.

A Confucian shrine

We took a walk along the river down a farming road and enjoyed seeing the banana trees up close, as well as a few water buffalo. There were quite a few large, abandoned boats tied up along the river that added to the atmosphere. 

In the main part of town there is a little touristy area where you can eat lunch on one of the river boats. We had some great local food, mainly fish, vegetables, and rice, but everything was fresh and the breeze coming off the river was heavenly.

View of the village center from the boat where we ate lunch

Getting There

There is a local bus that goes to Yangmei which you can get from a bus station near Lubanlu and Daxue Rd (close to the main gate of Guangxi University). I don't remind the price of a bus ticket, which needs to be purchased in the station before boarding, but it wasn't terribly expensive - probably around 10 or 20 rmb.

It would also be possible to get a taxi there and then catch the local bus back to Nanning, however the bus can get pretty crowded with school kids depending on the time of day, so arriving at the bus stop in town early is a good idea. The best way to find out the bus schedule would be to ask in the bus station mentioned above, as things change frequently in China.