Rafting the Lijiang between Xingping and Yangdi

Day 3 (25th March 2011)

I woke up early and left the hostel at about 7:20 a.m. for an early morning exploration of the town. However, the hostel had not opened its door. As in Yangshuo, business will only start at 8 a.m. I was too early. Outside, there was a street market right in front of the hostel. There was a school near the hostel and there were many parents and children around this area. I had my breakfast of Guilin Mifen again at the stall across the road.

By 7:55 a.m., I was back in the hostel. The tout has not arrived yet. At about 8:20 a.m., I saw her. She was late. She waved and said that she was buying breakfast for her son. By that time, I had already checked out from the hostel. When she finally returned, she led the way through the alley to the bridge and to her raft, manned by her son. She passed the takeaway breakfast to her son and left as I boarded the raft. This was probably the first raft out since I did not see any other rafts in the river yet. Unlike the bamboo raft at Yulong, the rafts here were made of pvc pipe and were motorised.

Half-way up to Yangdi, near the Nine-Horse Fresco Hill, the rafter stopped at a pebble beach to have his cold breakfast. Twenty-five minutes later, the raft continued its journey towards Yangdi. At about this time, I started seeing rafts moving towards Xingping from Yangdi.

At a spot which the rafter said was near Yangdi, he made a u-turn to return to Xingping. On the return trip, I realised that there could be a thousand raft that morning on the river. There was an endless stream of rafts, going up and down the Lijiang between Xingping or Yangdi.

After returning from the cruise, I went to take my bag and left for the bus station to take a bus to return to Yangshuo.

That afternoon, I hired a bicycle for RMB10 to explore the streets in Yangshuo. Somehow, I ended up tagging after some bicyclists, after seeing them on the road as they ride towards their destination. Unfortunately, a tyre punctured mid-way on the journey. As I made my way back to the hostel, I got lost in the town, until someone pointed out the direction.

After the bicycle ride, it was back to West Street again. This time, the weather was fine and I could spend more time there taking photographs.

Tomorrow, I would be going to Huangyao Ancient Town. The film "Painted Veil" was shot there. I was going there after reading the blog of Am of sayingtheunsaid (http://sayingtheunsaid.blogspot.com/).

After that, it was dinner. At the restaurant, I saw a patron there eating something that looked nice. It was the famous Beer Fish. I decided to order one too.

After dinner, it was time to explore Pantao Road. I planned to walk as far as I could before returning to the hostel, and I ended it at the Sinopec gas station. Pantao Road has nothing of interest at night, except at the junction with Diecui Road where there was a small night market with a number of small eateries and stalls selling souvenir. There was also a giant screen here promoting Guilin.