There was still quite a distance from where we had our lunch to the main town of Yangshuo. Although the road here is not a main road, it is well paved and is passable by small vehicles, making it perfect for biking. The splendor of the Yangshuo countryside continued to unfold before our eyes as limestone mountain upon limestone mountain continued to appear. I have never seen such concentration before.
Interestingly the limestone mountains were all roughly the same size and shape. This place is not unlike the Chocolate Hills of the Philippines where it is also formed by the weathering limestone mountains. The shapes of the Chocolate Hills are more uniform though, while the mountains of Yangshuo all have bizzare shapes. Additionally, there seem to be breaks in between the “moutain ranges” where fields of rice are used to fill the gaps.
Riding by bicycle is the best way to see rural China up close. Along the way, there was a store selling fruit and handicrafts. My companions seemed to be up for some dessert. While I was just taking photos. At this time of the year, it was still quite chilly and the gloomy weather didn’t help either. Fortunately, there were this group of kids tending a small fire where my companions eagerly sat in front of the fire to warm themselves. I brought adequate clothing so I wasn’t really feeling the cold. It was still ok as long as there was no wind.
There was hardly any modern housing here with the notable exception of this house we saw by the roadside. It seemed like it was a modern resort/hotel with a old Chinese theme. It was still under construction when I visited. I felt a little disappointed with this because it ruins the wonderful atmosphere of the Yangshuo countryside. It think the government should take a little more action into reining in developments such as this. Keep these places in West Street.
Our path was pretty much flat, sometimes though the road would slope following the terrain but it was nothing unmanageable. My companions has noted how my biking has improved since we left. It is true, it has improved, but mainly due to the absence of the hordes of Chinese bikers that threaten to knock me over. It guess this is one of the lesser visited paths and I am thankful for that.
But it was short-lived. We finally reached the main road heading back to the main town of Yangshuo. This is practically the same highway I took from Guilin. Now, instead of merely crossing the highway, I have to bike on the highway itself. There isn’t any marked bike path, so we will needed to ride on the shoulder and hope the vehicles won’t need to use it anytime soon. Since this is a main highway, there were a lot of vehicles plying the road. That was not a problem for me. They would probably try to avoid any bikers, I think. But here along the main road the hordes of bikers have returned and are now all heading back to Yangshuo.
I reverted back to my amateur biker self and had to wait until there isn’t any competition before I move. The highway, as expected, is completely flat so it was actually easier than I expected. Besides, I have been biking for several hours now, surely, I must have racked up some experience points, right?
Along the way we passed by a place called the Butterfly Cave 蝴蝶泉. This place is basically a butterfly theme park where everything in it is about butterflies including butterfly shapes cave formations, there are real butterflies in there, but this type of thing doesn’t really interest me. The limestone mountains of Yangshuo are more interesting than seeing some butterfly exhibit. There are also caves where visitors and go for mudbaths, but why? Maybe if you live here and are sick of seeing nature at its best.
As we finally got to Yangshou town proper, there were more and more buildings along the road, a sure sign that our journey is almost finished. The last hurdle is a moderate rise heading back to West Street, at that point I didn’t have much strength anymore and I just pushed my bike up. We got back to where we borrowed the bicycles very happy and satisfied with what we saw.
We gave Qingting a token amount for all that he has done for us. Come to think of it, he even paid for our lunch, the bike rental and the raft ride, he even helped to reserved a room for me in Guangzhou. I thought that was a great deal. Because of him I got to have a good time in Yangshuo and I didn’t have to worry about a single thing. Except for maintaining my balance.
My new lady friends need to leave for Guangzhou now, which was the whole reason why we were in such a hurry to get back. I accompanied them back to their hotel and finally to their bus station. They were wonderful companions, I am glad to have known them and I hope to be able to meet up with them again in the future.
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