Yangshuo & Li River Cruise
From Around the world in 90 Days in Yangshuo, China on Apr 14 '07
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Our first destination in mainland China was Yangshuo, world renowned for the splendour of the surrounding limestone karst scenery. This landscape has been the inspiration of countless numbers of Chinese artists and painters. When the first western visitors saw the mountains in Chinese paintings they thought that it was part of the artist's imagination. Little did they know that what they were seeing was a faithful reproduction of the landscape around Yangshuo.
The trip started with a magical trip down the Li River from Guilin. This is some of the most amazing scenery that I have ever seen. The strange shaped mountains towered over us on both sides of the river and we snapped away with our cameras every few minutes. We were hardly alone on our cruise. Looking up and down the river, there were cruise ships in convoy along the river stretching as far as the eye can see, but this did nothing to spoil the experience of the cruise. The town of Yangshuo, the ultimate destination, is magnificently situated by a waterfall on a sweeping bend of the river, surrounded on all sides by the towering limestone mountains.
That night we were treated to a fantastic light and music show on the Li River. The magnificent karst formed the background and the river formed the stage with the performers moving on bamboo rafts throughout. The sheer scale of the production was spectacular - the cast numbered over 600 people and through the clever use of lights and fire, they performed extracts from popular Chinese books and stories. We sat there completely dumbstruck - we couldn't believe we were there.
The following day we headed off on an early morning bike ride through the countryside with the rest of our tour group. We could see the locals in the paddy fields and took some amazing pictures of the limestone karst reflecting in the water of the rice paddies. We then went on a bamboo raft back to town, floating leisurely down river and taking even more pictures.
This was a great place to see rural China, the 'old China' that is fast disappearing. What a fantastic place to start our tour of China.
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