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sunday 21st september - day
guilin
we have booked to do the li river tour with the hostel. a bamboo raft down the river from the guilin pier to xingping and trasport from there to a little town — yangshou.
it takes about 90mins to the pier and we board the 'rafts'. the rafts are actually small boats and the bases just look like bamboo. we are in groups of 4, and are joined by two german girls.
we sail for around an hour down the river and the view is stunning. the deep green shallow river weaves between the 300m karst formations and peaks which have ben weathered into intriguing shapes. the river is lined with bamboo groves, tropical vegitation and dotted with tiny wooden houses. the river is busy with boats and there are also big cruise liner style boats which go all the way to yangshou.
along the river we see the karst formations of 'nine horse hill', 'fish tail peak' and 'penholder peak' and finally near xingping is the famous river view which is printed on the back of the 20yen note. this is definately one of the best things we have experienced in china.
after some confusion on where we get back on the bus, we find the tour guide and take the electric car to the bus which takes us straight down to yangshou.
yangshou is still a small town but as it depends on tourisim, its full of stalls, shops, restraunts and even a mcdonalds. surrounded by the karst peaks and paddy fields, the li river and yulong he run through its centre.
we try some of the local speciality 'beer fish' with yeeyoung and then rent some bikes (10rmb) to explore the city. we take a southern route, and after escaping the main road and passing numerous farming feilds, we reach bridge and river where theres some actual bamboo rafts!! we get yeeyoung to hagle an entrace fee for us so we can go into a feild of wild flowers backed by the karst hills its pretty picturesque. we even manage to spot a water buffalo in the tinyest mud puddle having a roll about.
we cycle back to town centre and the main tourist road - 'west street', sit at the edge of the river, and grab some food and beers - we get to try some free snails, which are actually ok!
goodbyes with yeeyoung and then we get the local bus (no5) to the bus station and then pay 22rmb for the coach back go guilin.
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