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Published: November 8th 2009
The Li River as it is on the 20Yuan Banknote
Enlarge this photo and look at Banknote bottom right hand sideAfter a totally mammoth journey including half an hour on a bus, followed by 31hrs on a train to Guilin, immediately followed by another 2hrs on a bus (70km South) then a 2km walk with our packs and whilst during this time managing to read two entire books as well as playing cards, talking and sleeping!!! Although, without showering or washing for fear of legionnaires or worse!! We arrived tired and very smelly at West Lily Hotel in Yangshuo at 11pm on SUN 18 OCT 2009
MON 19 OCT 2009
Yangshou meaning 'bright moon' is home to China's most spectacular scenery. From the minute the bus started to wind round the small village roads and high mountains enveloped everything around us - I knew ... this was my sort of place! The landscape provided a dramatic back drop with numerous caves, sinkholes, fissures, and fresh water streams. The village was adorable, little shops lined the streets and believe it or not - everyone (well near enough everyone) was really friendly!! The village swarmed with activity and was the perfect base to do a number of activities in the surrounding hillsides from including: cycling between hamlets, hiking, rock climbing
and offered local experiences such as cooking or martial arts! It was the best part of China we had been to - and typical it was our last stop!
The first excursion we booked was a four person cruise on a bamboo raft down the Li River.
We caught the public bus to Xingping, where we were collected by a golf buggy type vehicle and zipped to the docks where the cruise started. From the second the bamboo raft started to float along the river, all the hustle and bustle of the village left behind, it felt like we were the only ones on that river. It was SO peaceful, so quiet and serene - the scenery idyllic! Leanne and Derek loved it to (I was a little concerned about this as they weren't really country bumpkins like myself-ha ha!) The little guy we had in charge of navigating the raft was lovely and kept pointing out various things to us. Really there are not enough words to describe how beautiful it was - have included photos instead but even they don't do it justice! The ninety minute trip covered the most spectacular scenery on the entire river. The
Li River wound peacefully through the surrounding hills, the sides lined by paddy fields and grass strewn meadows which could be seen stretching into the distance. Occasionally we would see big water buffalo type animals drinking from the side of the river and at one point we even saw a buffalo completely submerged in the water, just half of its head protruding out, cooling itself from the searing heat. I did not thing there would be one thing to persuade me to return to China ... this place, however, would make me seriously contemplate!
The raft landed at Yandi and we caught the public bus back to Yangshou. However, now due to an ever looming flight out and a rapidly decreasing time window - no rest for the wicked. We jumped straight onto our hired mountain bikes and cycled through the beautiful countryside. The roads here were great, there was a whole other lane dedicated just for bikes, scooters and rickshaw type vehicles. About 12 km South we reached our destination ... Moon Hill. A large hill named after the crescent-shaped hole which pierces the peak.
It was a good thirty minute climb following stone steps, through forests of
bamboo ad brambles to reach the summit. The views form the summit took in the entire valley, with the Li river snaking its way through the middle and fields cut into uneven chequers by rice and vegetable plots spreading into the distance - just beautiful!!
The second we reached ground level, it was back on the bikes again and an enjoyable but fast cycle back to the hostel so we could get showered and changed ready for our next excursion of the day ... 'Cormorant fishing'.
The 'Cormorant fishing' involved going out in a punt at dusk, and floating alongside a bamboo raft from which a group of cormorants fish for their owner. This is a years old tradition in this part of China with owners raising their young birds to dive into the water and swim back to the boat with full beaks. You yourselves might in fact have seen the man we observed in practice - can you remember the HSBC advert where an old Chinese man with a grey goatee beard and a pointy hat fishes with Cormorants of a bamboo raft???? Well, it was the same guy we watched (now famous thanks to HSBC
- ha ha!) The cormorants can swallow small fish that is their reward for fishing but they are prevented from swallowing the larger fish by rings or ties which are fastened around their necks so instead they spit them back out onto the raft for the fisherman to collect! It was great to watch and at the end of the fishing the fisherman stopped on a small island and allowed us to see the Cormorants close up and answered any questions we had - fascinating stuff!!
We concluded the day by walking down the bustling night market street - West street and had a celebratory dinner at 'Cloud Nine' said to serve 'undoubtedly the best Chinese food in Yangshou - juicy and flavourful' and it most certainly was - yummy!!!
TUES 20 OCT 2009
An early start and our last full action packed day in China!
Back on the mountain bikes with a little complaining of sore bottoms from the previous days riding on hard saddle seats! We biked north this time through equally magnificent countryside.
We arrived at the start of our second bamboo rafting adventure, however, this time the rafts were just for
two people and the trip involved negotiating several stretches of rapids. As we precariously picked our way over the rotting rafts towards the one we would be using, a felt a overwhelming sense of panic. These rafts were barely buoyant, let alone stable - now the water was not overly deep so it the raft did overturn or capsize it would not be a problem, you would just lift yourself out of the water - my panic stemmed from the fact that I had my camera in my bag and it was not in a waterproof case - I did not want to damage the camera or the photos I had taken thus far on the memory card! Unable to turn back, I decided the best plan of attack was to locate a plastic bag and on each set of rapids secure the camera in the bag with a tight knot and keep it water resistant as possible!
Not all sections of the river contained rapids - some parts were still and calm like the previous day, then their would be a short section of raids before returning to the calm! As we floated along the calm section other
rafts which were passing in the opposite direction attempted to sell over priced goods to you, typical China! It was 8am and the Chinese in the boats were trying to sell us beer!! I mean I know we are English, but thats just ridiculous!! Then ... a new tactic in the scamming game - the lady shouted if not for you, why don't you buy your raft man a beer?! What a position to be put in! If we told her to get stuffed, we would probably be purposefully capsized at the next rapids or if we bought the guy a beer, it would cost us 3times the price we could buy one at the supermarket?? Hhhmmmm. Camera at the forefront of my mind, I bought a beer! Although, I have to say the driver was really appreciative of it and did share it with Paul for the rest of the trip!
The rapids were not scary in fact they consisted of just a small drop as the river descended from one level down a few meters to the next level - what was REALLY scary was that the water level must have been very low as the raft
continually got stranded on the edge of the drop, rocking precariously like a rocking horse and the raft guy had to either jump off, push and jump back on or wait for the raft behind to hit us and nudge us off - either of which options resulted in an uneven shunt predominantly heavy on one side - like what you see on the police, camera, action video's where in the chase the police car taps one rear side of the stolen car to send it into an uncontrollable spin. But in one case it was an uncontrollable rock where one side of the raft became so submerged it very nearly over turned the raft. As the raft tilted dangerously to the side, so far that the left hand side of the raft was pointing to the sky and both our feet were underwater, I stood, bent both my knees and was just about to launch myself off the raft onto a nearby raft which was only a few metres away and secured to the side of the riverbed when the raft guy and Paul lent so far the other side the raft started to flip back the correct way!
Angie in Chinese Hat
Dad, another one for the collection, its on its way to you now (hopefully) Relived the camera was ok and we were only wet from the knees down I let out a long held breath! Paul turned looked at me and in sheer disbelief said;
“I can't believe you were just about to jump!!”. Well, a girls got to do,what a girl got to do!! besides, Paul can swim well - he he!
At the end of the rafting, feeling so relieved to be on dry land again, it was an effort not to kneel and kiss the ground beneath my feet!!! We collected the mountain bikes again and winced as tender sitting bones made contact with impossibly hard seats! We headed South again to a location near Moon Hill. We were going to The Black Dragon Water Cave.
The cave can only be entered by boat under a small gap in a cliff rock face. We had a guide who lead us on a rather poor tour and cave exploration, the most interesting part of which was when Derek squashed himself into a small hollow behind a rock and hid until an unsuspecting Leanne who was busy talking to the guide behind walked past, when he proceeded to jump out, yelling
loudly and frightening the wits out of the rest of the group let alone Leanne!!! Very amusing.
The cave had some unusual features deep within - formations which had been named: 'The Lotus Flower', the Jellyfish, the rather imaginatively named Golden and Silver Rock, Clear water pool, Snow Hill and Rice Terraces after their similarities to the aforementioned. Towards the end of the exploration and deep into the cave their was a Mud Pit - yeap, you have guessed it, a large pit full of mud water! Derek and Paul jumped straight in, closely followed by Leanne - they were absolutely caked in mud - thick, glupy, dirty mud - very funny!! After a VERY COLD below freezing hose down to clean all the congealed mud off, we entered the final section of the under ground cave ... the Hot Springs. These were lovely and very unusual as rather than being one rather large pool it was a collection of small individual wells all different depths and sizes, different temperatures and on multiple different levels - very natural and authentic. Great to ease all the aches and pains for all the exertion over past few weeks - bliss!
All that was left of the day out was to cycle back to hostel and have our final meal together before we had to say goodbye to Leanne and Derek! We had a fabulous meal at a restaurant called seventh heaven before they caught a taxi to the airport and we jumped on a sleeper bus to Shenzhen at 10.30pm were we could cross the border into Hong Kong!
The sleeper bus was a very bizarre experience! The bus was full of beds (well when I say beds - if you can call a 1ft wide by 5ft long and 2inch high rectangular box a bed!) even I had to stick my feet out into the aisle as I was too tall to fit in the designated sleeper space! The enlarged tray came with a two level pillow and a blanket! There were three trays (I mean beds) across the width of the bus and about ten back then there was another level above like bunk beds but without rails or sides. It felt really strange lying down and going round bends whilst being wedged in.
It was all worth it though because 12hrs later we arrived in
Overlooking Yangshou
Not sure why we are all pulling faces Shenzhen - the final city to pass through in China!!!
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Karen Pennington
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Saved the best till last
Hi, Thanks for keeping your 'blog' up to date. It is realy fascinating following your travels. It sounds like you are all having a fantastic time. Your last stop in China really sounded like the best ever, especially the scenery in Yangshou! Enjoy the rest of your trip. Warmest regards Karenx