Yangzhou

Yangzhou is only an hour by bus from Guilin and would be our final stop in China. Being slap bang in the middle of the limestone peaks and on the banks of the Li and Yulong rivers, this place is a magnet for Western as well as Chinese tourists. The main street is closed to traffic which makes a change in China and is a 100% tourist trap with hundreds of shops, restaurants and neon fronted bars. As you walk down the street you are pulled and heckled to come into my restaurant, my bar, buy a hand fan. Ironically, after the chaos of the rest of China and even with this constant pressure we fell in love with this place. As soon as you get away from the tourist streets the place is far calmer and shows a more rural side to the rest of the China we had seen.

Upon arriving at the hostel we booked our bamboo boat trip down the Li river which was to meander for nearly 2 hours through the incredible scenery with just the two of us and the helmsman aboard. Whilst inspecting the construction of the boat (something we often do) Emma thought that the white bamboo was actually bamboo painted with white plasticised paint, where I concluded that it was in fact fake and made entirely of plastic. This debate raged on for some time with Emma promoting the benefits of using real bamboo against plastic. The helmsman was in no position to help us conclude the debate as he spoke no English. Finally it was ended by the only means possible…..the touch test which confirmed that it was indeed plastic fake Bamboo. Victory to me…..for once!

Once the boat ride was finished we were dropped on the bank near a village where we made our way into the village on foot taking in the incredible scenery. Paddy fields, people’s homes that were little more than shacks and these limestone towers covered in vegetation. The village was very rural and after 30 minutes of wandering we eventually found the bus station for the local bus back to Yangzhou.

The weather in Yangzhou was the hottest so far with very high humidity, a prelude of things to come, however with very little actual sun. With the exception of the odd day this has been a relatively common theme throughout China - solid cloud cover.

Our trusty guide book also recommended a bike ride along the Yulong river which took in some of the more dramatic landscape of this area. So for the first time in this crazy country we braved the roads and cycled out of the town. After a few wrong turns (rubbish map and no road signs) we found the road we were looking for and started down the track. The view from the bike was incredible and thankfully the track was relatively flat. The temperature was around 30 degrees with humidity around 90%, so making it ideal cycling weather! We rode for about 4 hours in total before having to give up due to the heat so even though we did not complete the trail what we saw was amazing.

Other than that we ate, drank, rested, meandered the streets and met up with Kevin and Chloe (the couple we met in Guilin) for dinner and drinks.

Next stop: Hong Kong and we had two options for transport, train or night bus. So far on this trip due to budget we have had to balance the cost of transport with the cost of accommodation, mostly trying to combine the two by using overnight transport. With the train involving much more messing about and travelling through the day we opted for our first experience of the night sleeper bus, more on this next time.