Roland's Travelog: Yangshuo, Xingping and the Li River

Yangshuo (阳朔) is an hour mini-bus ride from Guilin, there are boat trips that cruise down the Li river to here, which sounds an idyllic way of getting there and was my original plan, but the high prices, the fact that during winter, due to low water levels, the 5-6 hour trip is reduced to about one and a half hours without any discounts and the gloomy grey weather all convinced me it would be better to save it for another time. A good decision that turned out to be too. Arrived in Yangshuo and as usual greeted by someone trying to sell a hotel room at the bus station, which on this occasion I took a look at and found a nice room in the 'Fawlty Towers Hotel'. (This shows the amount of tourism that has hit Yangshuo). So after Sybil showed me a room, Manuel checked me in and I had dumped my bags, I went for a walk around Yangshuo, (I didn't see Basil anywhere).

Yangshuo lies in the shadow of 'Green Lotus Peak' and other limestone hills to the south. A small town turned into a real tourist centre, lying in a beautiful setting on the river. It's quiet vehicle free central street contains rows of art, craft, textile and clothes shops, mixed with coffee shops, cafes, restaurants, bars, and tourist info places trying to sell boat trips, tickets to evening dance shows, rent bicycles and tour guides. Despite the blatant commercialism, it's green, natural setting and peaceful, relaxed atmosphere (at this time of year at least, in summer I suspect it's completely packed with tourists) gives the feel of a little paradise in a rural part of China. Despite a few exceptions, even the tourist touts are quite relaxed and don't really hassle you, one was even really pleasant to chat with, giving no real pressure at all, just wanting to talk about my home country. In the quiet streets you see women walking around knitting, or cafe staff playing badminton while they wait for customers, it's a really laid back place to stay for a while.

Left: A boat trip view of the Li River
Centre: Relaxed Yangshuo: Card game in the middle of the street
Right: Relaxed Yangshuo: Knitting in the middle of the street.

Along the roadside overlooking the river there are also many interesting souvenir stalls selling typical Chinese art, scroll paintings, decorative Chinese fans, anything silk, coins and jade. Food is also always easily available in cafes or on the streets where locals are selling fruits, corn on the cob, fresh sugar cane among other things, the most abundant of which is the pomelo, a fruit something like a grapefruit, but bigger and sweeter, which must be in season during winter as heaps and heaps of these could be seen all around town and neighbouring countryside.

Left: Another view from the Li River boat trip.
Right: Yangshuo's "West street" at night.

On my second day in Yangshuo, the weather changed and it was almost like summer again, sunny, clear skies, warmer, though still a bit cold. So, having not done the boat trip from Guilin, I checked out the options available here and found that it was possible to arrange one from here for a lot less cost. Although you could take a bamboo raft along the river here, it would not go far, so a bus ride to Xingping was necessary, to where the water levels were high enough and from there I joined a 90-minute trip which is along the most scenic of the Li River and its limestone peaks. The bonus was knowing that I was seeing almost all the river route of the journey I would have seen had I taken the shortened (bus-aided) boat trip from Guilin to Yangshuo. It cost 70 yuan including bus to Xingping, instead of 240 yuan (or 410 yuan for English speaking tour boat!) from Guilin. So that's a useful tip for anyone travelling these parts during winter, in summer, maybe it's worth the extra for the whole trip, but I don't know yet.