Welcoming in the Year of the Snake with fireworks, apples, chickens and red and gold decorations.

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It was an easy decision to decide to spend the Chinese New Year holiday break in the pretty town of Yangshuo. Months ago I booked accommodation at the Yangshuo Village Retreat which is actually in a small village a couple of kilometres from the bustle of tourism in Yangshuo itself. Leaving Guilin by bus we were hit by the first 'tourist' scam of the trip. As we approached the bus station a busboy greeted us on the footpath with 'Yangshuo?' And at our nods proceeded to lead us through the rows of buses to the Yangshuo bus - all very usual for a Chinese bus station. However after loading our bags aboard it came up with a sheaf of tickets and told us the price was 200 yuan each and the bus would go soon. Knowing that price was way too much for that route we protested and soon realised he was charging us for virtually half the seats on board! We left quickly, retrieving our bags, to his calls of decreasing prices. By the time we were on the bus next door the price had dropped to 40 yuan each. It wasn't a lot of money but we really don't like being taken advantage of....Five minutes later we were on the way, paying the correct price of only 20 yuan each for the very scenic hour and a half drive.

As we got closer to Yangshuo the trees lining the road side were all decorated with strings of small red tissue paper lanterns - we actually saw women hanging them, taking the lanterns from boxes on the backs of their bicycles. It must have been a time consuming task because the streets of Yangshuo had thousands of strings of them hanging from the tree branches. It certainly gave the town a festive touch. A rattling aluminium sheeted tuktuk took us to our guesthouse And as we left Yangshuo we drove under a long yellow covered walkway, lined with empty stalls, which followed the path of the river, before arriving at the guesthouse. Our room at the guest house averaged $65 a night - New Year prices when rates nearly doubled. It was lovely though - quiet, wonderful staff (Belgian owner),heating, good wifi and the best quality linen ever. The towels were big and thick and changed daily. We spent the rest of the day checking out Yangshuo which was very quiet - West Street (tourist cafe/shopping) was nearly deserted. It was the day before New Years Eve so families were busy preparing for the festival which is very family orientated for the first few days. The family come together(sometimes after days of travelling) to share New Years Eve together. It is spent indoors (being usually cold as it always falls during the winter months) with lots of food, alcohol and mahjong. First though houses need to be cleaned thoroughly, new or clean clothes ready, red envelopes of cash (all new notes so the banks were busy) - you even have to make sure you are showered before midnight on New Years Eve. The owner of our guesthouse is married to a Chinese lady who told us all about the traditions. They give $2000 of clean new notes away in little red and gold envelopes every New Year as well as providing feasts for any family members who visit during the fortnight of celebrations.

That evening we ate at the guest house - the food and wine list was great. We left the dining room early as families of all the staff started arriving for a meal together. Our room had a DVD player so we were happy to spend the evening watching pirated movies. Next day it was still bitterly cold but clear and the karsts surrounding us looked fabulous. The guest house shuttle dropped us at the bus station and we were soon on our way to the market day at Xingping, about an hour away. We had a fascinating wander around the old village streets watching local families hang their New Year banners around their doorways - the new ones are obviously only hung New Years Eve - they replace the very faded ones still hanging from twelve months before. It was market day and a roaring trade was being done in live chickens. There were dozens of bamboo baskets lined up, each crammed with noisy hens. They were sold by weight as the poor creatures were hung from primitive scales by their legs and weighed before being handed over to the purchaser. We saw many people plucking chickens on their front steps that day. Other very popular items for sale were red and gold presentation boxes of apples, crimson and gold banners, lots of other food lines in New Year bulk packs and of course fire crackers.

Xingping is on the Li River and has some of the most iconic karst scenes (on all the postcards) nearby. We had planned on taking a bamboo raft along the river but the day, weather wise, was still bitterly cold and showing no signs of improving so we decided instead to walk along the bank for a while. We found the scene up river which is featured on the Chinese 20 yuan note before deciding to try and find somewhere to eat lunch. After lunch we went back to Yangshuo to find most of the town closed early - every body was heading off for their family gatherings. Another DVD night in for us....At midnight we were woken by the booming of fireworks - we felt as if we had suddenly found ourselves in the middle of a war zone. The sound of fireworks settled down after a while but were still a constant part of the back ground noise for the remainder of our time in Yangshuo.

Next day the scenery was cloaked in smoke and many of the karats were barely visible. After breakfast we set off to walk to Fuli, a town 8 Klms from Yangshuo, known for it's production of painted silk fans. The day was very cold - we walked the length of Yangshuo and past the tourist trap of annoying bamboo raft trip touts (they were very persistent, probably lacking customers as it was still very quiet) until we reached the country roads. An interesting and scenic walk which did not follow the river as expected but wound its way around many karsts and small villages. We passed a few new graves covered with large bamboo and tinsel wreaths and the decorated bamboo frames which were placed over the coffins as they were taken to the tomb. we reached the town on the opposite of the river from Fuli (after being driven the last kilometre in a passing tuktuk) where we boarded a ferry and waited half an hour before it crossed to Fuli. Women were washing clothes in the river beside the ferry gang plank - what a miserable back breaking job in such cold weather. Fuli was not a particularly impressive little town though. We went into one of the family fan painting businesses and enjoyed comparing the painting styles of the different family members. I liked Grandad's best - his fans were all black and painted in contemporary designs. They were surprisingly cheap - they only had very large fans for sale (far too big to bring home) at 120 yuan each. The red confetti left over from the previous nights fireworks - it was outside most houses as they are let off at the front door - was like a thick carpet to walk over in Fuli. There were no buses available to return to Yangshuo on so we were lucky to be given a lift by a Chinese tour bus which had dropped its passengers in Fuli to bamboo raft back down the river to Yangshuo.

In the few hours we had been away the streets of Yangshuo had been invaded by hundreds of Chinese tourists - we had to push through the crowds in the main tourist area. From virtually deserted for the previous couple of days to totally crazy in such a short space of time. We decided to eat at the guesthouse that evening and started walking back. The covered walkway was also teaming with visitors and we passed many electric cars (the 'green' tourist transport optionthat we had seen in Lijiang and Dali as well) leaving the area. We realised that the tour boats from Guilin must berth on the river below the walkway. The stall holders - all selling the same scarves, imitation jade and wooden products - would have been happy. Next day we walked through the back streets of the town to Yangshuo Park where we looked at the brightly coloured silk lanterns and the large silk dragon which wound through the park. We debated about coming back after dark to see them all lit up but as we were planning to be in Chengdu for one of China's largest lantern festival on the 24th of the month decided not to. Across the road was the large local market - and the first market where we've seen dog for sale since living in Guangshui. It was horrible to see, particularly the cages of dogs waiting to be killed which lined the meat stalls. Thankfully we didn't see any killed (they are not killed humanely) during our short visit. Calling into the post office for some stamps we checked on the price of posting a parcel back to Australia and decided to send one home next day. The weather was still cold and overcast when we woke up and we were very pleased that we had seen the karsts in all their splendour on our first day as it appeared that they may be shrouded in fog and smoke for the remainder of our time on the Li River.

On our last day in Yangshuo we caught a bus to another village called Baisha but decided to stay on and continue to Yulong Bridge, described in the guide book as a pretty arched bridge. The Yulong River is a tributary of the Li River. On the way there the bus was very overloaded with people standing. The bus lady suddenly called out and everybody standing quickly crouched as we drove past a police car. Not fast enough unfortunately as we were stopped and all the people standing had to get off and walked away. As soon as the police left the bus picked them all up again! Really funny - and not the first time something similar has happened on a bus trip in China that we've been on. Drivers always put their seat belts on as they approach a big town and quickly slide out from under them as they drive out the other side..... The bridge was not attractive as the banks of the river below were covered with dozens of bamboo rafts, many appeared abandoned and very dilapidated. They were also a magnet for Chinese tourists who were clambering on and off them for a short trip up the river. We left soon after arriving and walked around the village nearby. The yellow rape seed flower had started to bloom in the tiny fields and with the red confetti everywhere around the white houses it was pretty. The karsts in the background added to the scene.

From there we walked to Baisha before returning to the noise and bustle of West Street in Yangshuo. We had a meal in town that evening and were given an insight to family life in the one child (little emperor) wealthy Chinese family. The children ruled, anything they wanted they got, Mum followed her child around - wiping their noses and hand feeding them. The children we were watching were around ten years of age! Yangshuo had been a wonderful place to spend the holiday season - we were not sorry to leave though as it had become incredibly busy. The red tree decorations really added to the gorgeous scenery, the food and wine was great and as we had visited previously we felt no need to revisit the various caves and hills around the area. The weather could have been better - it rained all night on our final evening and was bitterly cold whilst waiting in the dark next morning for the bus which was taking us to the Dragon Back Rice Terraces. Hopefully it wasn't raining over the terraces.

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