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Blogs from Xingping, Guangxi, China, Asia
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July 17th 2012
This is one of the most scenic areas in the province. We took a local bus from Yangshuo to Xingping. It is only 25 km and cost about 7 yuan. Passing through villages along the way, we arrive in Xingping, only to be swamped by local touts who pester you with nagging to go on a bamboo ride. Of course their prices is highly inflated, and since you do not know the system or understand or read chinese, this makes it very difficult and frustrating. There is actually a very simple system, once you have figured it out, but these woman try their best to distract you from finding out how it works. After some very frustrating negotiating, we decided first to go for lunch and try to loose these pestering woman. What a great decision. ... read more
February 28th 2012
So, We made it back to Yangshuo after a night in Xingping. This time without the early morning adventures. Xingping was beautiful. We had lots of fun there depsite the constant rain and the "wet cold" that the rain brought with it. It's a small enough rural town and that we saw no modern heating except in our hostel. It was pretty peaceful, and quiet. You don't notice how used to the city noises you get until you leave them behind! The Hostel itself was great (called "this old place hostel"). They even had firebrick oven roasted pizza that was pretty good. We splurged twice and went western with the pizza. We had great plans of taking full advantage of the rural setting to go hiking, and biking, and see some caves, etc.... After an overnight ... read more
July 5th 2011
Hello everyone! I have spent quite some time writing and rewriting this latest blog post as I found it was becoming very negative. In order to make this easier I have decided to break it up in to two sections, Positive and Negative. For those of a positive nature, you can just read the first section and ignore the rest. Positive. Well I have been very pleasantly surprised by the type of traveler you get in China, I have met some really great people and not a dreadlock in sight. I spent most of the last three months avoiding my fellow travelers but in China they seem to be a different breed entirely. I have had several really good nights and several corresponding hangovers. Individually the Chinese can also be thoroughly decent, good natured and generous. ... read more
October 4th 2010
We arrived in Xingping after we had a banquet-like lunch that included three mushroom dishes (the quantity to be the brut of many jokes for the rest of the trip) and beer fish (a local speciality). None of us had any idea where we were, besides 40 minutes away from where we'd started. I'd certainly never heard of it, and just assumed that we were in some distant reach of Guilin, and not a different town. But this is where a traveler needs to go to take a cruise on the Li River. The Li River inXingPing is significant because it's pictured on the back of the 20 RMB bill. The scenery was spectacular. We walked a bit to get to the river, both along the river and through part of the town. Then, onto the ... read more
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November 7th 2008
Saturday 1st November was the 32nd day of our sojourn. It is a day tinged with sadness for me being Anne's birthday, one of the two cousins that left this world too soon. Our birthdays all fell on the same day in November although on different dates, we were close, still are. Sue and I went out for the day. The Li River runs south through Guilin and Yangshuo and in doing so flows past some the most dramatic of the limestone Karst mountains in the region. It is such a landmark that it is reproduced on the back of the 20 yuan (RMB) note. We took the local bus to XingPing (Shingping) which is about halfway between Yangshuo and Guilin and wandered around the old town before heading out along the river. There is a ... read more
October 3rd 2007
In a bid to escape the hordes and the hotel prices of Yangshuo, we decamped upstream to Xingping, whose own karst-surrounded stretch of the Li River is so renowned that it features on the back of the 20 yuan note. Rooms were a little less astronomically priced here, but the quality was lower and it also turned out to be an unsuitable base. Misty karst scenery in this region is a mainstay of Chinese landscape painting, and the received wisdom is that viewing the limestone peaks is best done from the water. It would be hard to overstate the popularity of this activity. Large tour boats ply the Guilin-to-Yangshuo-and-back route every couple of minutes with umpteen smaller craft (predominantly motorised bamboo rafts with seating for up to 5 people) buzzing around them. The parade of vessels ... read more
May 7th 2006
Sally and I had such a good time yesterday I hired her again for today. I could probably have managed my route over the next few days, but it is nice to have someone along who knows all the little nooks and crannies, and the language. Plus I know she could use the fee. After our 8 hour bike ride yesterday, today was much easier. We took local buses to visit some local towns. Baisha is a little north of here and it was market day there. And I mean market day. IT takes place every 3 days and you can get absolutely anything your heart desires, from live birds to dead ones, from underwear to spices - you can even get your teeth cleaned at a stall right there! A little crazy. After that we ... read more
