Yangshuo Cooking School

Taking a cooking class is a great alternative or addition to the usual sightseeing and the Yangshuo Cooking School offers just such courses to all those visitors, who don’t only want to munch their way around China, but want to do a bit of hands-on work as well. During lessons ranging from four hours to week long intensive courses, you will learn everything from buying the correct ingredients to preparing several Yangshuo dishes according to old recipes that have thousands of years of history attached to them. First, you will go to the local market, a huge complex of several buildings containing all the garlic root, taro fruit and Chinese broccoli you will need, seafood sections with frogs, crayfish and crabs in their big tanks and a big meat department, that not only offers chicken, but also tofu and an array of spices. 
After everyone is done with the shopping, the new pupils are brought to the Cooking School, which is located in an old farmhouse with a beautiful courtyard and everyone gets their own work stations and equipment. Under the watchful eyes of the teachers, you learn the correct chopping techniques, that you have to heat the wok until it smokes before putting peanut oil in and what to do with those weird looking, purple aubergines. Of course, at the very end, you can enjoy the fruits of your labor and eat all the dishes you have prepared in the big courtyard during the big communal lunch. 

Practical Info

The Yangshuo Cooking School has two locations, one is located right in Yangshuo on Bingjiang Road on the banks of the Li River, the other one in the village of Chao Long about 5 kilometers outside of Yangshuo.