Yangshuo, China

Yangshuo is a rural town surrounded by thousands of karsts, limestone hills that jut out of the ground, the same types of formations found in Ha Long Bay and throughout Southeast Asia. Having already seen so much of this type of landscape, it wasn't quite the amazing adventure most say it is. But undoubtedly the near constant rain had a little to do with it. Despite this, it was still a gorgeous area and unlike other places, I was able to climb on top of the karsts and see the landscape around for miles. On my first day, I went up to the town of Xingping, famous for its landscape being printed on the back of the 20 Yuan note. I hired a bamboo raft to take me from there to Yangdi, supposedly the best part of the Yangshuo area.

When I got back, I hiked up to the top of a karst for some awesome panaromic views of the countryside, the Li River, and the karsts all over the area.

The next day I rented a bike and went out to the Yulong River Valley for some nice views.

After riding on the roads in China, I can tell (at least partly) why the country is so polluted. Some of the buses and cars are constantly emitting black smoke from their exhaust, the "tractors" are old, open engined carts that leave a foul cloud in their wake, and they prefer to put put along rather than go at a speed where gas efficiency is optimized. After Yulong Valley, I rode to Moon Hill, a hill with a cave through its middle, and hiked up to it for more views.

The town of Yangshuo itself is packed with Chinese tourists, though it used to be known as a backpacker town, but it has great Chinese places (with English menus!) and a fun little nightlife scene.

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Details:

Getting from Lijiang to Yangshuo takes about 36 hours, and nothing is direct. I took the bus ($28/190¥, 9-10 hours, departing 8:30, booked through my hostel) to Kunming, which very inconviniently left me in the North part of Kunming at rush hour. So I had to take a taxi to the train station across town ($2/16¥). At the train station, I found out there were no direct routes from Kunming to Guilin, so I had to take the overnight train to Nanning ($31/210¥ for hard sleeper, departing 19:30, 14 hours) and then take a train to Guilin ($10/65¥ for hard seat, departing 10:00, 5 hours). If your cart looks packed, try moving to another one for a much more relaxing ride. Once you arrive in Guilin, the minibuses in the square in front of the station leave frequently for Yangshuo ($2/15¥, 2.5 hours) (the station you want by the way is Guilin Zhan, not Guilin Bei Zhan, the north station). Once in Yangshuo, you will be dropped off at the bus station and just continue down the main road another block to West Street, a pedestrian only road with tons of budget accommodation on it. I stayed at Monkey Jane's ($3.50/25¥ for dorms, $7.50/50¥ for a single), a place with a great rooftop bar and horrible rooms, if you are intent on staying there, it is several blocks down West Street then off an alley to the right, look for the hostel's yellow sign. The staff is friendly but don't expect your room to be clean or the bed to be nice. I was woken up one morning when a cockroach crawled on my face. Basically, my advice is to enjoy the bar here but stay elsewhere. The easiest way to get to Xingping is to take the minibus ($1/5.5¥, 1 hour). When you arrive at the bus station, keep going along the main road, though it will turn, it is obviously the main drag. Follow this and just before you arrive at the Quay, there will be a little arch with a sign that says Zhu Zhai Restaurant. Through here is the start of the 1158 steps to the top of the karst, which takes about 30 minutes, depending on your physical condition. For those less adventurous, just walk by the arch and haggle with the pushy ladies for a Bamboo boat ride ($11/80¥ to Yangdi and back if you barter well, up to 150¥ if you don't). Alternatively, you can hike back along the river, which takes about 3 hours. Honestly, the best part of this ride is right at the beginning, where the view on the 20 Yuan note is. For those short on money and/or time, just take the boat out to the little island for this view, it shouldn't be more than 10-15¥. For bike rental and exploration, there are plenty of places to get a bike and they vary in quality quite a bit. I got mine at the place just off West Street toward the beginning. They rent nicer bikes by the day and I got mine for a really good deal because I misheard the price (they said $7.50/50¥, but I heard $2/15¥ and at the end when I gave them $2/15¥, they let me have it for $3/20¥ rather than have me walk away). So to get to the Yulong River Valley, take the main road toward Guilin and at Baisha town, the first one of any size, take the main road to the left until you come to a bridge (total about 1 hour), from here you can take a dirt road to the next bridge down, about 5-10 minutes away. There are more little roads leading into the countryside, but they quickly peter out to nothing in this area. To get to Moon Hill, follow the main road to Lui Zhou for about 45 minutes. To see Moon Hill, hiking is pretty much obligatory ($2/15¥ entry fee) and you can go up two ways, either to Vanity Hill and Moon Palace. They go to different places. Vanity Hill looks out over the countryside and gets a good view of the entire Moon Hill, while the Moon Palace has more spectacular views and passes underneath the cave Moon Hill is famous for. Expect to be hassled almost every step of the way unless you are firm in telling the old ladies selling drinks "no". By all accounts, the best adventure in Yanshuo is to get lost in the countryside, though I didn't do this because of the terrible weather. You can also climb several of the hills in the town itself, the one at the back of the market street by the waterside has a little pavillion or something and trail to the top of a karst, though they close it for bad weather. There is an entrance fee.