Since many years, Yangshuo is considered to be a travelers gem. Even in the ears that China was a closed country and few, if any were able to travel in China, Yangshuo was the exception. In the early 80’s, when traveling in China was almost like traveling to Mars, there were only a few areas for tourism opened. Most of those areas you had to travel with an official Chinese guide, who usually spoke little English and told you no more then the official story, written by the the Chinese Communist Party.
When I first visited China in the mid 90’s, tourism was rapidly increasing. There were still plenty of officially closed areas but there were also plenty of options to travel independent through the country. Booking a train ticket or obtain a bus ticket could be a real challenge. I remember Hezhou, not far from Xiahe in north China where I could only obtain a bus ticket if I had a Chinese Insurance, but to obtain such an insurance you needed to hand over a bus ticket, proving you were traveling in that area.
Those days are over. China nowadays is just as difficult, or as easy to travel as any other Asian country. That is, of course, if you do your homework. One thing many travelers underestimate are the distances. Flying from west to east China take 3 hours, north to south, around 1.5 to 2 hours. So planning is essential.
Yangshuo is such an area that shows up on my “to be visited areas in China”. It’s not for nothing. There are few places in China, even in the world more scenic then Yangshuo.
The limestone mountains of Yangshuo
I have said it before, and I repeat it here: “If paradise have existed, it might very well have been here in Yangshuo”. Of course there are plenty of other wonderful and magic areas to visit but Yangshuo has without a doubt one of the most famous and spectacular limestone karst rock formations.
Yangshuo is located in south China, about 600 km north west of Guangzhou and Hong Kong. With an international airport in Guilin, Yangshuo, at 66 km from Guilin is now easily accessible to the rest of the world. The Guilin airport has direct connections to Hong Kong and Bangkok amongst other international airports.
While flying in from the Hong Kong direction you might already get a glimpse of the limestone mountains. The airport, located west of Guilin city is also the north west border of the limestone mountain area. Traveling by taxi from the airport to Guilin gives you already an intro to what you will see later on.
The way to Yangshuo
There are two ways you can travel to Yangshuo from Guilin. One goes over land, the other via the Li Jiang river. Personally I like the river cruise, because that is what it is, as an entrance to Yangshuo. The start of the cruise is nothing much. But after some time the landscape gets more and more spectacular until it reaches its summit in Xingping where boats have a stop and you can enjoy a drink in one of the restaurants.
This doesn’t mean the last part of the river to Yangshuo, another 20km or so, is not interesting. Contrary. This part is beautiful and I can recommend it in any season although, obviously in the summer months, when beautiful clear weather it’s spectacular.
The road from Guilin to Yangshuo does not offer such spectacular sights, thus many people decide to come through the river and leave via the road.
There is another way to come to Yangshuo, from the south. Hong Kong and Guangzhou are not too far, a night bus ride away. The old road from Guangzhou to Wuzhou and then north to Yangshuo is no longer so much in use but it is a very nice and partly scenic road. However, as many travelers from Guangzhou or Hong Kong come with night buses, they won’t see much of the scenery anyway. The newer road is much more scenic. Cyclists travel this road too but it’s a busier road. There are several towns with some very scenic areas though nothing comes close to Yangshuo.
Travelers from south China, Nanning and Liuzhou usually take the express bus or the train to Guilin but there’s another road, crossing the hills and come just south of Yangshuo together in Lipu. Cyclist usually take 2 days from Liuzhou to Yangshuo this way. There are sleeper buses doing this journey but it’s slow and unpleasant.
The limestone mountains
Most people come for two reasons to Yangshuo: see the limestone rock formations and do some cycling, hiking, rockclimbing or other outdoor activities here. Moonhill is one of the most famous and most visited rocks in the area. It’s located at the main road some kilometers south of Yangshuo town center. But there’s plenty more to see.
Take a raft just north of Moonhill and drift westwards with the limestone mountains on both sides. More serene you can not get it. Or go to Xingping, another spectacular area with plenty of opportunities for rock climbing and hiking. But the best way is simply to take a bicycle and cycle in the area. With of without a guide, you will find small villages where time seems to have stand still.
Others come simply here to hang out, enjoy a westernized piece of China, where bread, coffee and pizza together with plenty of Chinese speaking English make life easy. True, in China these days there are more places where you find these western things. Yangshuo still has the name as a backpackers paradise and it’s still worth the visit for a couple of days.
Peter van der Lans is a Dutchman who lives these days in Sitiawan Malaysia. After years of traveling, he cycled from Holland to Malaysia, stayed a months in the Middle East, a year on the Indian Subcontinent and 2 years in China plus a year in the UK, he settled himself in Malaysia.
Sitiawan was the perfect place to write a website about Pangkor island, a small island on the Malaysian west coast. Later he wrote http://www.bicycle-adventures.com, an ongoing project about his journeys on bicycles. A third website: http://www.yangshuo-travel-guide.com he recently build. In the years in China, he lived in Yangshuo and he thinks he can tell the story about this pretty little town in China.
