Hiking for the Money Shot: The Li River Hike

While we floated lazily down the river yesterday, today was going to be more challenging. We hopped on the private bus to head to Yangdi Village, a small town on the Li River. Many tourists choose to see the Li River by cruise boat; therefore, Yangdi has become quite the tourist stop. From the vendors, I bought a hat to avoid getting sun burned and to get more shade.

Carl and Tenille were missing today, because they chose to spend the day whitewater rafting and checking out the mud baths near Yangshuo. The five of us started our hiking trek by crossing the river on a bamboo water taxi. The Li River which carves through the karst mountains makes for some pretty awesome scenery ranging from animals grazing to farmers tilling their land. Our hike took a good 5-6 hours. While the weather was warm, it wasn't oppressively hot. Along the way, we met other foreign hikers from Portugal. Borrowing a page from two guys from the Netherlands and Germany, Doug and I decided to take a swimming break in the Li River.

'Welcome to Jurassic Park'...

Check out Jason's hang time... Me and Doug are just taking off...

Jason's still in the air...

While the boy below may have looked cute, he repeatedly said in Chinese that he wanted to kill us. Not so sure he was joking.

To help hikers from going astray, the path was marked by these red circled numbers.

Towards the end of our hike, we approached a view of the karst mountains that's printed on and made famous by the 20 Yuan bill. Our hike path didn't pass through the exact vantage point shown on the bill, but we got pretty close.

The hike ended shortly thereafter upon entering the town of Xingping. On the drive back to Yangshuo, we gave rides to four foreign backpackers who were glad to receive the premium accommodations rather than riding the public bus. In the pic below, artists were drawing images of the local karst geography onto scrolls for sale.

After an early dinner at our favorite Yangshuo dumpling house (my fourth and final time), I indulged in a much needed massage, and the group hit up Bar 98, an Australian-owned bar in the heart of Yangshuo.