Yangshuo, with its limestone karsts jutting out of the earth and scenic riverside location, is one of Chinas most famous travel destinations. Pictures and paintings of the spectacular scenery adorn everything from books and blogs to government offices and hotels. Safe to say Yangshuo is on most peoples “must visit” list when planning a trip to China. However, now
that the cat is out of the bag it can be hard to find your own piece of tranquility in this ever popular location. However just remember the golden rule of travel: 80% of the travellers will be in 20% of the places.
Upon arrival in Yangshuo most people will immediately head off to organise a cruise along the Li river. These are pretty easy to arrange as the boat drivers will probably find you before you find them. When booking these boat trips, bargaining is completely fair game and expected. Most of these trips leave in the morning and come back early afternoon, meaning that if you’re looking for serenity and something off the beaten track this may not be the best option for you.
When I visited with my good friend Andy back in October 2014 we decided to rent a couple of mountain bikes to explore the surrounding area, as I had done on a previous trip in 2008. However the owner of the bike shop recommend taking on a 45km bike ride to the small village of Xing Ping, to the north east on the opposite side of the river. Always being keen to try something a bit different we decided this was a great idea, in spite of the fact Andy hadn’t ridden a bike for at least 5 years.
We set off at around 8:30 and within half an hour we were out of the town and into the countryside winding through farmland passing by confused looking farmers and smiling school children. Soon the the flat concrete roads gave way to rolling hills slicing through the limestone karsts; cycling through the flatness of Beijing this was not.
Although the hills weren’t particularly steep, the uphill portion definitely seemed like a never ending struggle at times, but at the end of every uphill struggle came a fantastic view as we hugged the Li river heading north towards to Xing Ping.
Our map said that eventually the road would lead us down to the rivers edge. Here we would find a boat to cross the river for the final leg of our journey to Xing Ping. We followed our map and zipped down a dirt track, popping out into a small farming village and we realised we were practically on the banks of the river. Should be fairly easy to find the jetty now right? Wrong. We ended up taking quite a few wrong turns, dirt tracks and u-turns before we found the crossing point.
After waiting for our driver to finish his instant noodles, we paid our 10 kuai and crossed the Li river. We cycled south following the banks of the river to get to our final destination of Xing Ping, passing the scenery used on the 20 kauai note on the way. As we rolled into Xing Ping the first thing that came to our mind was to try to find a cold beer and something to eat. We were now at the point of the day where we had a decision to make, should we cycle back or should put the bikes on a bamboo raft and sail back do the Li river to Yangshuo. Naturally we decided to take a boat back. We headed down to the jetty and began bargaining with everyone that came our way.
You don’t need to worry about finding a boat. The drivers will find you before you find them. We negotiated a price, put our bikes on the front of the bamboo boat and set off for the journey back to Yangshuo. It was late afternoon at this point, with a cool breeze in the air, a welcome relief from the midday sun. Since most visitors to Yangshuo will do boat cruises earlier in the day, doing it later in the day means you can actually have large swathes of the river all to yourself. We had arranged with the driver and his agent to drop us at the jetty in Yangshuo. However as we approached the town we were dropped at a small stone staircase. Turns out our driver didn’t have the necessary permits to go back Yangshuo, so we had not choice but to get off and cycle back. Fortunately it was only a 15 minute ride back to the hire shop so it wasn’t a huge problem.
This was a unique way to experience one of Chinas most beautiful regions. It definitely not an easy ride, but remember it’s not always about the destination, sometimes it’s about the journey.
