9 November – 12 November 2013

We enjoyed  a chilled day yesterday in Guilin, which we ended with an amazing pizza and beer on the river front – a growing tradition of a Friday treat. The next morning we caught the bus to Yangshuo, a touristy town surrounded by stunning Chinese nature – Li River, mandarin orchards and rugged karst peaks which looked like something from Avatar. As soon as we arrived we checked in to our hostel and took a walk around town. We found bikes to rent for 10 Yuan a day and after a noodle lunch we took off! As soon as we left Yangshuo we found ourselves amongst stunning limestone peaks and small villages as we followed the Yulong River. We stopped for an ice tea and a pomelo at the Dragon bridge to cool down...the sun had been beating down on us all afternoon. We took the same route back to Yangshuo, where we had a street food dinner and a delicious mango juice before heading to bed.

We woke up to the sound of heavy rain outside our window which put our plans of a long hike from Yangdi to Xingping into question. After enjoying yoghurt and fruit for breakfast in the hostel we sought some advice (and a weather forecast) and decided to head to Xingping by bus. When we arrived we found the ‘This Old Place’ hostel and enjoyed a short walk through the narrow cobbled streets lined with traditional old buildings. By this point the weather had cleared up and decided to go on with our initial planned hike but in reverse. It turned out to be a good decision as the weather held out for our four hour walk along the Li River through more beautiful scenery. 

We passed through many small villages linked together with mandarin orchards and crossed the river three times with traditional bamboo rafts in order to follow the track around riverside cliffs.



We arrived in Yangdi to find a public bus for Xingping waiting and after an hour’s drive found ourselves back at the hostel. With tired legs we headed to a local eatery for tasty noodle soup before returning to our cosy pine clad room.

Unfortunately it had been raining all night long and we woke to the continuing heavy downpour – the tail end of ‘super typhoon’ Haiyan which has devastated the Philippines, but luckily lost most of its power by the time it hit China. Without much choice this was to be a relaxed and lazy day. We spent the morning reading at the hostel before braving the rain and heading out for lunch. Alby tried beer duck which was good, a Guiling specialty. As it happened we were both in a shopping mood and hit the little shops and stalls for soggy souvenirs, local tea and spicy ginger sweets. We wandered along the river bank for a dusk view of the scenery and encountered a fisherman with his cormorants giving a tourist show to some snap happy Chinese tourists. Actually the cormorants do most of the fishing – they swallow the small fish but keep the big ones in their long throats where the fisherman collects them from – an amazing double act. After watching the spectacle from a distance we headed to the same eatery as the night before and went to bed.

As we woke up we were happy not to hear the sound of rain. After a yummy dumpling and buffalo yoghurt breakie we climbed one of the massive peaks at the edge of town. After more than 1000 slippery steps we reached the pagoda at the top and enjoyed the beautiful view over Xingping and the surrounding area. After descending the steep steps back down we caught the bus back to Yangshuo. After a disappointingly meaty and complicated noodle lunch we headed to Fulli, a town 15 minutes’ drive away, famous for its handmade fans. We wandered around the cobbled streets and dipped our heads into a view family run fan making studios. After a bubble tea we went back to Yangshuo – Fulli wasn’t that spectacular. In Yangshuo we hopped on a bus to Guilin, where we checked in to our favourite hostel, had Japanese dinner in a good little food street and went to bed.