Dan's Adventure

Boat trips from Guilin to Yangshuo are one of the main reasons that people visit either town, the scenery along the Li River is amazing and makes the effort of getting there more than worth while. I opted for an alternative to the boat trip because I was fed up sitting on my ass travelling between places. Myself and another guy from the hostel I was staying at planned our excursion over a few beers and agreed to meet bright and early the following morning.

From Yangshuo we took the local bus almost 2 hours north to a village called Yande. The majority of the people on the bus who weren’t locals were taking a boat trip from Yande back down the river to Yangshuo, but our plan was to walk. Our route down the river involved several river crossings for which we had to negotiate rides on bamboo rafts. These were essentially 5 or 6 bamboo shoots bound together, some plastic chairs balanced on them and a make shift motor and rudder stuck on the back. All very safe. My favourite was a boat that had a child’s inflatable swimming ring tied to the side as a safety ring.

It took us around 6 hours to walk the 18km from Yande to Xing Ping where we made it just in time for the last bus back to Yangshuo. Along the way we walked through villages, fields, orchards, and were constantly amazed by the limestone hills surrounding us. Unfortunately there was a mist present all day which made most of the hills appear as just shadows in the distance, still it added an atmospheric quality to the experience.

All in I think it cost around 30rmb each for the trip including buses and the 3 boat crossings, a far better deal than taking the boat all the way down which would have cost a lot more. Walking meant that we didn’t just see the river banks and the hills, we saw a whole lot more by walking.