Our next stop: Guilin, capital of Guangxi province.

Our taxi mistakenly dropped us of at the Sheraton hotel… I wish! But no, we headed towards our hostel and immediately went exploring the town.

We paid 70 kuai for the Solitary Beauty Peak, which is a bit pricey to see, in my opinion, a rather ugly city although surrounded by incredible nature. We then continued walking to Swan Lake with the beautiful sun and moon pagodas and on to Elephant Trunk Hill. As you might have figured out, the mountain sort of looks like an elephant. And so, the Chinese have conveniently turned this area into an attraction park. You pay 40 kuai to pass through an elephant-shaped gate, with little elephant statues leading you further down the road. You can go up the mountain, pass beneath it’s ‘trunk’ and have a fried fish on a bamboo raft while taking pictures of elephant statues in funny positions. So very Chinese and I love it!

After a day of elephant ‘sillyness’,  we went for dinner. I have to admit that I haven’t quite gotten used to ordering Chinese food for my friends who aren’t familiar with Chinese food. Conversations often go like: “I’m taking the 扬州炒饭, you?” to which my friends then reply: ehm…noodles?

Guilin is the perfect departure point for exploring the Li River. We took a little bus to Caoping, where you can hire little bamboo boats from which you can admire the beautiful scenery around you. As you might have noticed, Chinese have the tendency to see figures and shapes into nearly everything. Every mountain or hill we passed had names like Lion Riding Carp Hill, Grandpa Watching Apple, Rooster Fighting Hill, Tortoise Climbing Up Hill, Yellow Cloth in the Water, Boy Worships Buddha etc.

Our Chinese boatman enthusiastically explained the different shapes and names to be seen to our left and right and occasionally, we would cross another boat, or a cormorant fisherman. This has been the traditional way of fishing for the people living around the Li River. The cormorants are trained to dive into the river and catch fish. They are prevented from swallowing them because of a ring placed around their necks. After catching a fish the birds return to the boat where the fisherman removes the fish from the bird’s beak. As sustainable development and preservation of the river is becoming more and more important, the cormorant fishing business is becoming more of a tourist attraction than an actual means of survival.

We arrived in Xingping and went to the ‘This Old Place’ Hostel and checked into our room with balcony and riverside view. Perfectly idyllic. Our hostel recommended we went up to Laozhai Mountain from which you could see the village, the river and the mountains.

Off to Yangshuo for the next part of our trip! A bus ride in China proceeds a bit like this: you are at the station and get on the bus. Usually you are the only person there, and of course, the only foreigner. You think: ‘hey, a bus all to myself!’ The bus is about to leave when all of a sudden EVERYONE and EVERYTHING get’s on board: plastic bags, live chicken, cardboard boxes, rice, vegetables, funny smelling drinks… Once everyone is on the bus, you start to think: ‘ok, ready to go!’. But along the way, the bus driver and ticket seller stop to take on extra people, even if the bus is packed. It’s a money making business.

Once in Yangshuo, we rented bikes and started on our journey along the Yulong River. We biked from the main road into the little sandy roads and all of a sudden, we had left the busy city behind us and all we could see were hill tops and rice paddies. It was great: biking, the mountains, the mist, the tiny villages, the people… In the middle of nowhere we saw a sign with the Dutch words “De koffie staat klaar” (Coffee is served). Intrigued by this Dutch sign in the middle of nowhere, we followed the  and ended up at The Giggling Tree hostel, managed by a Dutch couple! I ended up giving their address to my parents, who were planning to visit in July!