Guanxi Province - Rice Terraces, Yangshou, XingPing

Guilin - Pingan

Pingan Village

The flight from Shanghai to Guilin is about 2.5hrs long so not so bad and then the drive to the rice terraces was another 2 hours.  The rice terraces are commonly know as The Dragons Backbone Rice terraces.  We stayed in a really small cute village called Pingan which is 600 years old.  We slept and ate at the Longji Holiday Hotel.  This is a family run hotel and was really good value for money.  Many of the hotels are owned by big corporates which made this place a little special and we certainly got great service from An Mei.  We booked on booking.com and emailed the hotel to orgainise our transfer.  We were lucky enough to be travelling with Annette Gubbels and her two children Ella and Rafiel and Jane Finnimore, Lachy, Violet and Lila Pye.  

Rice Terraces on route to Zhonlu

Well deserved Beer

Car access to the village is really limited so we walked in the dark for about 25 mins up this cobblestone path which added to the adventure.  Lucky we thought ahead to book bag carriers.  We spotted some glowworms on the way up which the kids loved.

The next day we walked through the rice terraces to a village called Zhonglu which was good fun.   Bevan was a legend carrying Samuel on this very long walk - we tried to hire a donkey but alas couldn't.   Later in the afternoon after a rest and some wine/beer we walked to some closer rice terraces which I felts were just spectacular.  We ate at the hotel that evening and enjoyed some good home cooked food by An Mei.

Li River

We drove for about 2 hours from Pingan Village to the Li River where we took a ride on motorized "Bamboo Rafts".  These infact are plastic tube rafts but even so were still fun.  Samuel purchased a water gun for the ride - not sure if this was a good idea!  

The scenery on this journey was breathtaking  We saw Kast limestone peaks and had fun imagining what they were supposed to look like.  There is a picture of some of them on the 20RMB note so we all had this photo taken.  The kids enjoyed this part of the trip and I dare say the water gun kept them entertained. We stopped ashore part way and Mackenzie had her photo taken with the Comorant bird which is used by fisherman in the area.  They tie wire around the birds necks to prevent them from swallowing the fish.

The boat docked a short distance from a village called Xingping which is over 1000 years old and was very quaint and idyllic - great place for another beer stop.  We then had a relatively shortish drive to our accommodation in Yangshou.

Yangshou

We arrived at our accommodation Yangshou Mountain Retreat which really was a treat.  It sits alongside the Yulong River and has awesome views of the limestone karst peaks.  It was really peaceful and energising to be at this place and was pleased we took the recommendation from a friend.  To sit on your balcony in the morning with a coffee and look at the view is something I will remember forever (I guess now I have written it in the blog I will).  

We arranged a bamboo rafting and bike excursion the following day with www.bikeasia.com who I was very happy with.  They arranged the bamboo rafting, transfers and lunch for us together with a guide which made for a very easy day.

The bamboo rafting along the Yulong river was relaxing.  We got on upstream from Dragons Bridge. Dragons Bridge is supposed to be some 400 years old but Lachy and I have our doubts on this fact due to the amount of concrete - however it was still nice.   It was a beautiful day and the kids ended up jumping in the river for a swim.  While Bevan was contemplating getting in Samuel gave him a helpful nudge.  Our guides thought this was most entertaining.  The water I gather from everyones reaction was fresh.

We pulled in about an hour and a half later at a village called Jiuxian where we had the most devine lunch at a restaurant called The Secret Garden.  This was a great place accessed via walking through a few old alleys and then through the restaurant to a 'secret garden' no less.  

We then sized ourselves up on the moutain bikes and started our journey.  It was an easy 10km bike ride although if you don't bike much that should just about do it for you.  The bike ride was alongside the Yulong River on recently paved paths and only a short distance on the road.  We spotted farmers in the fields and water buffulos on our travels.  The company bike asia also have tag alongs and babyseats.  Our family really enjoyed this day and I would say it was one of the highlights for us.

Jiuxian Village

Later that evening we went to the great impression light show which is a great show directed by the guy who choregraphed the opening of the olympic games in Beijing.  It was very well done and we were all quite impressed with this.  The hotel booked the tickets for us but there seemed to be a totally chaotic way of colleting the tickets and getting to our seats.  It was typical chinese style - orgainised chaos. 

Our final day was spent with a few hours at the Silver Caves which stretched 2km long but lucky for us were not too busy.  This was an easy 30 min drive from our hotel.  We were very impressed with the rock formations called stalagmites and stalactites not to mention the fish pond not far from the entrance.

The remainder of the day was spent swimming in the river on rubber tubes going over the waterfall.  The kids looked to be having a blast.  Lachy and Bevan were good at directing traffic in the river and making way for the bamboo rafts ensuring the kids didn't get run over.  We spent the evening catching up with friends at The Giggling Tree (a family friendly dutch run hotel a little way down the road).  A few of us then went into town to West Street which is a tourist shopping street which was typical of any.  

On reflection this holiday was one of the most picturesque parts of China that I have seen to date and we really enjoyed our time here.  It is definatley worth visiting and very family friendly we thought.