Yangshuo & Long Ji

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Yangshuo

First stop was Yangshuo - visitors to China will no doubt know this place, and it's a place I've been wanting to visit since I got to China. Located near Guilin, it's home to karst mountains and beautiful scenery, often seen in postcards and books of China back home. I'd heard it was mainly visited by foreigners, and so was surprised to see so many Chinese tourists there. Apparantly, Yangshuo has started to appeal to the Chinese tour group, resulting in more tourist shops and chinese nightclubs. However, there are still many quiet parts of town.

I'd love to regale you with tales of adventure from Yangshuo. But, I spent a week here just relaxing and enjoying the environment. It's a pretty laid back place, and once you get out of town on bike, the landscape is stunning. The souvenir sellers are a bit pushy though, and some chinese students got into an argument with one of them whilst they were 'helping me' (she was trying to sell me some water at a distinctly unmouth-watering price). A few 'Ni mamas' resulted which you don't need to translate to get the drift!

Yangshuo is also pretty famous for comorant fishing. Though, judging by the lack of fish in the river, I think it's mainly for tourists these days. Once released by the 'fisherman', the birds swim about until they catch a fish. However, they have a wire tied around their neck meaning they can't swallow the fish. The fisherman then scoops the bird up and squeezes its neck until the fish plops into his backet. Seems a bit mean to me. It's like being invited to a dinner party, eating and then the host sticking their fingers down your throat. One of the cormorants bit me whilst I was stroking it so maybe it disagrees with me.


Long Ji

After getting some good rest, I decided to head up to Long Ji, just north of Guilin. Long Ji is famous for the 'Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces'. Located in a mountain valley, the slopes have been crafted into a series of terraces for growing rice. Again it looks like scenery taken from books on China, and makes you wonder just how they did it.

I arrived pretty late, but was keen to stay inside the valley at one of the many guesthouses along the way. Getting off the bus, I was confronted with a number of tiny, old women of the Yao Minority group offering to carry my bag for me. I don't have much with me so refused but another tourist accepted. I couldn't quite see how the tiny, old lady was going to carry his large suitcase and bags up the rather challenging trail. But after a while I realised that, whilst these women are small, they are well-hard. Their legs are built like cyclists - strong and wirey - and I saw some of them carrying crates of beer up the slopes. Their customs also dictate that they should not cut their hair, meaning many of them (mainly the older generations) have hair down to the floor. Though strangely, the lady that showed me her hair also produced two sets of old hair (they looked a bit like a horse's tail) which she combined with her existing hair. Apparantly, when the hair gets too long it gets uncomfortable and needs to be cut. Not that I'd know about things like that.

I spent a couple of days in the area. Again, the scenery was stunning and the place was made all the more enjoyable for not being overrun with tourists. The guesthouse was rather creaky and one person moving around most probably woke up the whole place. This resulted in me getting up for sunrise for the first time in my life - although I was a little grumpy at this!

My initial plan was to head up through Guizhou and the Minority regions but time doesn't permit this. So I shall probably fly up to Sichuan next.

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Photos

Yangshuo Main Street
During a thunderstorm

Me
River Cruise

Cormorant
Little git bit me just after this. Probably deserved it.

Long Ji 3
In the land of 4 ft women, the 6 ft man is a giant.