Amongst the Karst Peaks

The weather here started bad too but it doesn't take away from the scenery. Yangshuo is a fairly small town very popular with tourists there's a whole section of the town devoted to them but its not too bad quite noisy and comparatively expensive but its nice and relaxed. I had planned to do a hike on my first day here but the weather was dreadful so i jumped on a bus to my destination instead. The little fishing village of xingping, it was suggested in the lonely planet for its old town, which was tiny , but certainly worth a look, everything you would expect from a stereotypical old chinese town, rows of small houses with lanterns hanging down and bicycles strewn in the street. It was nice to wonder around and i was the only western tourist there, the chinese tours where present too but they seemed more interested in getting the extortionate ferry trips.
I had intended on getting a boat back down the Li river but it was too expensive to hire one alone so i got the bus back instead. Its definitely the main problem with being a single traveller, trying to get on tours and certain modes of transport can be really worthwhile if there is 3 or 4 of you but its just not viable if your alone. Can be a bit frustrating.

a very chinese looking street

Yangshuo is famous for its scenery, in particular the karst peaks. The best way to see them is to hire a bike and venture out. On my second day i joined with a chinese speaking malaysian and we both hired bikes for the day and headed out. The route should apparently have taken us about 3 hours but it stretched out to 6 due to a combination of photo stops a shoddy map and 2 punctures, neither of which i suffered i'm glad to say.

more of the town tucked into the mountains

The scenery is spectacular (i'll post up some pics when i've got a slightly quicker computer) The mountains rise from nowhere like big green teeth. They look like the kind of hills you draw when your a kid, ridiculous rounded lumps with vertical sides.
Was walking through the touristy part of town that evening in search of some dinner when i bumped into a chap from uni, wound up having dinner with him and the rest of his tour group which was ace! They where in town for a couple of days as part of a whistle stop tour of China.

Dan complete with pink ladies bike and crazy hills!

Getting a bus back north tomorrow morning so im off to bed.

Amongst the Karst Peaks

Yangshuo, China