The Li River

By Pete
16-22/04/2019
After our first train journey in China it became apparent that security weren’t keen on Bea’s pocket knife being on board and we were risking confiscation with each trip. Bea put out a face book SOS to any friends that maybe coming through Kunming to take it back to Thailand for us, the knife had been a farewell gift from SRK 15 years ago, so it had sentimental value. Fortunately John Anderson was going to be in Kunming in a few weeks and was willing to transport ‘Excalibur’ back to safety. The new route allowed us to stop over in Kunming and drop it to his hotel, which was way more posh than anything we had seen recently!

The Li River below Guilin and the towns of Yangshuo and Xingping are famous for the vast area of granite Karsts that surround them. We had read that with the sudden growth of domestic tourism, Yangshuo had gone through a growth spurt and had lost most of its charm, so we booked into a guest house in a small village a little out of town. A decision we didn’t regret as the bus drove through. We regretted it even less after 2 hours and 6km of walking to find an ATM that would take international cards... and was working!! $#%@‘ng banks. (Ask Lek how much I hate banks). It was the first time in a month and a half that I started to loose it. Luckily the guest house was lovely as was Lilly the host. After a walk and a couple of JD’s at a small riverside bar, I began to appreciate the landscape we were in.

Next morning we grabbed a couple of mountain bikes and a map from Lilly then under heavy skies headed off to ride around the Yulong river and the surrounding villages, it was incredibly scenic and, as it was a tributary rather than the Li river itself, there were significantly less tourists in the area.

In the early afternoon we took an obligatory bamboo raft river down a particularly picturesque length of the river that finished adjacent to a scenic helicopter pad, and Bea got another birthday present!

(Note: we justified this flight as not contravening the rules as we landed where we took off therefore there was no forward progress!!)

We collected our bikes and headed back along the opposite river bank via some quite muddy goat tracks that tested Bea’s cycling skills, patience and butt. We arrived back at the guesthouse just on dusk and ready for a G&T or three while Lilly prepared some delicious traditional dishes of stuffed peppers and twice cooked pork for dinner.

The next morning Bea refused to get on a bike again so we went for a walk to Moon Hill. As we walked along the path I pointed up the hill and mentioned that’s where we were heading, Bea thought I was joking. Thirty very sweaty minutes later we reached the ‘moon palace’ a huge arch in the middle of one of the karsts. The view was spectacular, or would have been if it wasn’t for the mist and clouds.

On our return Bea read a description of the walk “A 30-minute –extremely sweaty –climb up steps to the magnificent natural arch that adorns Moon Hill is rewarded with both lost calories and some exhilarating views” a perfect description.
After lunch we headed to Xingping an ancient town on the banks of the Li River, where we would spend the weekend.

After checking into the ‘This Old Place’ Hostel, a very cool and well run hostel on the edge of the old town next to the main boat landing on the Li river, we took a wander around the old town. Xingping old town is over 1750-years old and while it’s small, has attractive old streets and loads of history, unfortunately behind these streets new developments are rising that could destroy its beauty. The landscape in which it sits, on the banks of the Li river amongst the stone karats is quite spectacular, in fact the view from the boat landing is printed on the back of China's ¥ 20 banknote, allegedly (some artistic license has been taken).

Also spectacular are the number of domestic tour groups with their ever present flag waving guides, matching hats and ability to create havoc with the traffic. Most independent travellers seemed to take an early morning walk before either retiring to the hostels or trekking in the surrounding hills, only venturing back onto the streets in the early evening as the tour busses depart. We elected to spend the first afternoon hanging in a coffee shop, planning the coming days. (Finally after weeks of crap coffee.... a fairly “decent” coffee and a proper “iced coffee” at that).

Unfortunately we were only able to stay one night in ‘This Old Place’ so the next morning we headed down a lovely old street toward our new accomodation, turned the corner out of the lovely street then another corner into a scarily ugly area of new construction being built in the heart of the old town to the Hi Grey Hostel. Which was both high and grey, and totally unsympathetic to its surrounding, a real shame.
Later that afternoon, armed with some dodgy directions, we headed off to fish village a one and a half hour trek away. The directions were even more dodgy than we imagined so after several U-turns and back tracks and 2 hours of walking up hill we realised we weren’t going make it to the fish village so we headed back down to dinner, a nondescript bowl of vegetable soup and a plate of bones masquerading as duck.

The next morning, unperturbed by the previous days fail we headed across the river to walk to the Tengjiao nunnery and Shawan village. This was a very scenic trek along the banks of the Li river slowly climbing along the sides of the hills that surround it. Halfway to the nunnery there were panoramic views down the river toward fish village - looked dull, glad we didn’t go!

The nunnery itself is small, rundown and a little ramshackle, in a really cool, not for tourist way. It’s setting, perched halfway up the cliff and nestled into a cave, is great. Water was pouring out of the overhang showering the old entry gate. We kept climbing past the nunnery before reaching the top of the pass overlooking farmland and the river beyond.

The view was attractive, Shawan village far below less so. The idea of clambering down to a seventies communist style village then hiking back up suddenly lost its appeal so we turned and followed our trail back arriving in Xingping 4 hours after we started.

After a really nice clay pot baked rice and pork dish for lunch, we had the absurd idea that taking a boat trip down the river may be a pleasant way to end our time in Xingqing, luckily one look at the hour and a half long queues saw sanity prevail and we adjourned, once again, to our favourite cafe, they really did do good coffee.
The next morning we headed to the station and off to Chengdu.