Buffalos and backroads

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We left our Shanghai backpacker's in a taxi that had a sign in the back saying 'psychos or drunkards without guardians are prohibited from taking taxis'! Yet another great Chinese/English translation!
We flew from Shanghai to Guilin in Guangxi province, in south-east China. The region is famed for its karst scenery, and the peaks rising from the fields are magnificent. We caught a bus from the airport into Guilin, navigated our way to another bus, paid someone we hoped was legitimate (turned out to be the bus driver) and then set off for Yangshou.
Yangshou is a town set up for backpackers, set amidst dramatic karsts and on the Li River. It has a relaxed vibe and is full of hostels, guest houses, cafes and shops. It's well set up for travellers but doesn't feel touristy in that there's no chain hotels or tour buses. The area had major floods just a few days before we arrived, and shopkeepers have told us that the river flooded and the water was waist-deep. Lots of the shops are offering heavily discounted merchandise because of water damage. It's one of those places where there's heaps of fake designer goods, and much of it looks not dissimilar to the real thing. There's also beautiful local tribal handicrafts, such as cushions, wall hangings, clothing and shoes. It's all exquisitely hand embroidered, often made out of silk, with price tags to match. I did some hard haggling today over two cushion covers and I think I really drove a bargain as the lady was very reluctant to sell and took photos of the goods before I left and told me to treasure them as they really were worth a lot more than what she'd 'given them away' for.
Today we took a local bus up to a nearby town, about forty-five minutes away. The bus was an experience in that the conductor was keen for as many customers as possible to get onboard. The bus regularly slowed down and the conductor would throw open the doors and shout 'Xingping' (the name of the town) and then cram more people on. We were at the front behind the driver, but between us there was a low table and two wooden boxes. Sure enough, people ended up sitting on the table and boxes and standing. When we ran out of seats, the conductor pulled small wooden stools from under the seats for people in the aisles to sit on. The teenage boy sitting next to me on the way back ended up falling asleep on my shoulder. On the bus we passed through picturesque little villages and saw old people in conical hats walking their water buffalo in the rice paddies.
From Xinping we got on a small boat and cruised the river for a few hours, enjoying the amazing karsts. Because it's been raining so much the river was very high and a lot of the karsts were shrouded in mist. The karsts are all different shapes and the Chinese have named them accordingly. There's 'yellow cloth in the water', 'fairy maiden peak', 'fish tail peak', 'chicken cage hill' and my personal favourite: 'grandpa watching apple'. We stopped along the river and had locals approach us selling goods. One enterprising lady had a pole with comorants on the end and for a fiver (about 30 pence), you could have your photo taken holding the pole, birds and wearing a conical hat. Dan obliged for the touristy photo and even got the comorants to flap their wings. Using comorants to fish is a local tradition here and yesterday we saw a wonderful looking old man, complete with long grey beard, fishing on a longtail boat with the birds.
Tomorrow we are going to visit some nearby terraced rice paddies. The scenery here really is amazing and I think this region is a definite highlight of China. A close contender to walking the Great Wall.

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