Yang Shuo - My Shangri-La

25th - 29th December 2007 Eighth-Twelveth Day

Our initial plan was to go Huang Shan in He Fei Province after Phoenix Capital. We realized that we didn't have enough money for the trip and Huang Shan was too far from Phoenix Capital. Moreover, we heard that some of the tourist spots in Huang Shan were closed due to heavy snow storms. After we had a discussion, we decided to go to Gui Lin instead of Huang Shan. If I had known that I would go to Gui Lin, I wouldn't tell my friends that Gui Lin is only for veterans.

We reached Gui Lin city at 6am and we went straight to Yang Shuo by bus and the journey took 1 1/2 hours. We stayed in a 3-star hotel and the room cost RMB50 per night. I felt it was extremely cheap. The hotel owner (a couple) was kind and friendly and they treated us to dinner. They provided us a lot of travel information and they even helped us to get local tickets which were cheaper than those for the tourists. They had a 4-year old daughter who was cute but she was quite matured when she talked. She kept on complaining that Chee Ying and I ate too much and she told her mom that she didn't want to be 'big' like us.

We hired an old lady as our guide for our bicycle ride. I wasn't good in cycling. As a result, I couldn't kept up with the guide and Chee Ying. We passed through villages and farms. Then we took a ride on the bamboo raft along the river. The view was beautiful and there were a lot of ducks swimming in the river. The river was not deep enough as it was winter and there were a few occassions, the boatman asked us to get down from the boat and wait for him at the shore while he pushed the raft forward with his bare hands.