The Yangshou Chapter

The train arrived into Guillin in the evening, bring a close to my 'transportation ordeal'. The next day, I left Guillin on a bus bound for the town of Yangshou. Leaving Guillin the scenery was quite amazing, the mountains in this region are quite unique, like crooked gnome hats dotted all over the landscape!

Arriving into Yangshou i sought-out the hostel I'd booked. Yangshou is quite a tourist orientated place, and judging by the scenery I'd seen so far I could understand why. The streets were packed with restaurants, bike-hire outlets and hostel-touts. At the hostel I met Jing, a Chinese girl staying in the same dorm. As we were both travelling alone we decided to team up for an excursion to the village of XingPing that afternoon, from where we planned to take a short boat trip. The scenery was again stunning, and taking a trip down the river in a small boat was definitely an excellent way to experience it.

The next day, myself and Jing hired out some bikes (Y15 for the day, that's just a quid!) to explore the back roads, rice paddies and particularly 'Moon Mountain'. It was quite liberating to peddle through the countryside, past small farming villages, with the bizarre mountains all around. It was a very very wet day, but cycling was enjoyable as it was really warm. Moon mountain was an interesting place, a mountain with a massive hole right the way through. Stunning views from the top. On our way down we witnessed a couple climbing the arch under the mountain, that'd be something to try one day!

Day 3 we hired out a tandem, to vary it a little, and headed back in the direction we'd gone the previous day. This time our destination was the 'water cave'. Possibly the biggest cave complex i think i've been in. We had to enter by boat, with our heads ducked to get through some really low parts of the passage. At about the half way mark we came to the 'mud pool' and took the plunge. You could lay on our back and completely float in it, there was also a mud-slide! After the cave, we found a nearby place to grab some lunch. Jing was great when it came to such things, she spoke good English so was able to translate the menu, or pick some interesting Chinese dishes for us, and thanks to her bargaining, I didn't have to pay foreigner price everywhere! After the nosh, the heavens opened, in the most dramatic torrential downpour. Cycling was not an option, so we just had to wait it out!

Jing had a contact in Yangshou known through a mutual friend of hers. The young lad, introduced to me as 'Mr Huang', lived with his parents, who made a living by fishing the nearby river. We were invited to receive the hospitality of the family and see the place where they did the fishing. This was a really excellent opportunity to make contact with local people, and see how they live. We cycled out of town to the riverside mooring from where they did their fishing, and took a swim in the river... i tried not to think too much about what kind of stuff might get put into the river! They kept some cormorants, which they still used to catch fish in the traditional way. They'd caught a fish with the special intention of cooking it for us. We went back to their house, a short way from the fishing spot, and Mr Haung cooked for us. The meal consisted of 'fish head soup', followed by an excellent fish and veg dish with rice. He was a good cook.

Later that day, we rode back to Yangshou, and Mr Huang showed me the way up one of the mountains on the edge of the town, from where we got an excellent view of the surrounding area. It was a tough climb in the heat and humidity, we went at a fair pace too; Mr Huang having spent time in the chinese army, had a decent fitness level.

The next day myself and Jing took a bus back to Gullin. She had to leave to go back to Shanghai, and I now had only a couple of days to get to Hong Kong and take my flight back home. We explored some of the parks in Guillin, and took a rickshaw around (for which Jing negotiated quite an amazing price).

It had been a really enjoyable week in this region, and i'd seen and done a lot of new things. I was definitely glad that i'd spent my last few days in the orient in these places!

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