Birds Flyin' High...: Beautiful (and frustrating) Yangshuo

From Chengdu I flew South to Guilin, where I slept overnight and then left on a bus to Yangshuo the next morning. As you might expect from a region which borders on North Vietnam, this area is known for its incredible rice terraces, minority villages and limestone karst landscape.

The town of Yangshuo had unfortunately fallen victim to the unrelenting tourist appetite for the beauty of the surrounding countryside. The streets were decked out with flashing neon lights, crammed with tacky shops and swarming with tourists. Thankfully I was staying in a “retreat” in a small village nearby.

On my first day I decided to visit the charming town of Fuli - 8km from Yangshuo. This place is known for one particular street where they make and hand-paint paper fans. I went to the bus stop, said “Fuli?” to one of the ticket-sellers, and got onto the bus to which he pointed. I did think it was strange when he charged me 20 yuan (over $3) for such a short journey but it was only after we’d been driving for 45 minutes that I started to think I might be on the wrong bus and it was another 15 minutes before I ventured to the front and again asked “Fuli?”. The look of horror on the conductor’s face said it all. Apparently I’d somehow managed to mispronounce the seemingly innocuous word “Fuli” at the bus station and had travelled for one hour in the completely wrong direction. They dropped me off on the side of the road and I crossed over and got on a bus going back the way I’d come! Two hours after first being there, I was back at the bus station, and this time managed to get on the right bus, which then dropped me off on the edge of the busy, noisy town of Fuli: not the charming place I’d been told to expect! I was rapidly losing patience!

I wandered up and down the streets for a while but couldn't find any old traditional parts. Finally I fashioned a fan from a piece of folded paper and used this to try to show the locals what I was looking for. Whilst some turned away or just looked at me blankly, a few did gesture vaguely in one particular direction and eventually after a few more wrong turns I found a long dirt track which lead into the almost deserted streets of the old town – a far cry from the hustle-bustle near the main road!

Deserted streets in Fuli old town

Most of the houses had their front doors open and I could peek into the front rooms, where the local people were often to be found sitting, watching the world go by. The rooms were sparsely and simply furnished with table and chair, TV and almost always a big portrait of Chairman Mao.

Houses in Fuli Old Town

I found the street with the fan-makers, visited a couple of workshops, made a purchase and then returned to the main town to catch the bus back.

Fan-making

On the way back to the main town I wandered through the food market where I'm afraid to say I did see some dogs roasting on a fire – not very appetising.

Fuli market (no photos of the roasted dog!)

I managed to mess up with the buses again by getting off too early and then walking in the opposite direction to town for a good 15 minutes (in the heat and humidity) before realising and turning back around.

I must admit I was finding China quite a difficult place to travel around – undoubtedly the most challenging of any I'd visited on this trip. I’d been warned that very few people speak English and that hadn't really bothered me as I've been to other places where that was the case (e.g. South India, Myanmar). However in those places I found other ways to communicate (pointing, mime, drawings etc!) but even that seemed incomprehensible to the people here. I’d really under-estimated how difficult it would be. Somehow it was more than just a language barrier - it was like an entirely different way of thinking. And most of the time I felt like the people didn't really want to help. When I tried to ask for directions, rather than make slow and deliberate pointing actions, they spoke very quickly “at me” in Chinese, or just shook their heads and turned away.

Anyway, after finally making it back to the bus station, I took my 5th bus of the day, up to Moon Hill - a limestone pinnacle with a moon-shaped hole in the middle - known for its mind-blowing views of the surrounding countryside.

Moon Hill

View from the top: worth the climb!

Actually this is a good example of the way things seemed to defy logic, here. It was a steep and sweaty 45-minute climb to the top, but the path split again and again and again and there were no signs. OK, I'm sure they all led to the same spot eventually but it would have been nice to know if one was more direct or had nicer views on the way up, etc. It’s not that I expect everyone to speak English – even a simple map/ diagram would have sufficed!

For wont of a better expression, China was "doing my head in" by this point. Yes there had been some beautiful and interesting sights but there were just so many anomalies and frustrations in between and it was all starting to feel a bit too much like hard work.

Taking the bus back to Yangshuo passed with no problems but then the free shuttle to my hotel didn't turn up so I had to walk back and AGAIN managed to take a wrong turn so that a 15-minute walk became 30. And believe me, after a year of having to navigate new cities I'm pretty good with a map, but these ones were poorly designed and with no road signs, it was particularly difficult! I was quite stressed when I arrived back – particularly as I was going to a show that evening and very nearly missed the free pick-up!

The show, called “Impressions”, was directed by the same guy who directed the opening ceremony at the Beijing Olympics. Actually it bore a lot of similarities to that event: visually impressive but perhaps a little over the top! They even had squeaky-voiced children singing! The stage was the river itself and many of the karsts were illuminated as part of the show, which was quite beautiful, but the actual plot was beyond me.

The next day I wasn't taking any chances with getting lost and decided to take a private boat tour and then a private driver to the airport… although of course this was very expensive (one of the downsides of being a lone traveller is that there’s no-one with whom to split the costs!). I did start off with another bus though, to the historic village of Xingping. This place really was charming and part of me wishes I’d based myself here all along. It had a few cute shops and cafés to browse in, but had not (yet?) been over-run with tourists like Yangshuo.