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River rhapsody
By Erik Nilsson (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-03 07:58
Yangshuo has for years been a bastion for backpackers seeking a slice of real rural life in South China. But the once-far-flung hamlet that served as a turnaround point for river tours from Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, has fallen victim to its own rural charm and swollen to become a full-fledged tourist town. But everything remains that has long drawn travelers to its location - waterlogged rice paddies, mud-brick farmhouses and yawning caves, all settled in the dimples of an undulating karst landscape. The proliferation of buildings merely fills in the spaces between dozens of limestone formations that tower over the city. And despite its growth, it's still less developed - that is, less overdeveloped - than Guilin, while still host to the same incredible geological formations, sired by ancient ocean water eons ago, when the area was a prehistoric seabed.
Adages about the journey being as good as the destination are particularly befitting of the three-hour river ride to Yangshuo from Guilin. Thousands of jutting karsts fleeced with greenery hug the looping Lijiang River and are mirrored in the water below. It's a motif straight out of an archetypical traditional Chinese painting, and taking it in while navigating the river is like slowly unfurling a 50-km-long horizontal scroll. Flotillas of sputtering shanty boats and bamboo rafts traverse the entire waterway, and hovels perched on stilts line pebbly banks. The brawny heads of paddling water buffaloes poke out of the emerald ripples. Many of the peaks have imaginative monikers like Thumb Mountain, Wine Bottle Cliff and Howling Turtle Peak. About midway to Yangshuo is Huangbu Daoying in Xinping, the cluster of karsts depicted on the back of the 20-yuan bill. Most boatmen will dock here to let passengers take the obligatory photo of them holding the banknote backwards with the peaks behind them. Upon disembarking at Yangshuo's pier, it's a short walk to downtown. Once in the heart of the city, most visitors head for the main artery, Xijie. Having sprouted to court backpackers, this cobblestone passageway is a hive of bars, restaurants and knick-knack shops. Eateries here run the gamut from Western brewpubs to open-air diners proffering mostly local delicacies, such as "Lijiang river fish soup", "beer fish" and "upside down bowl pork". Tucked on Liangfengzhongxiang, just off Xijie, is Monkey Jane's Guesthouse, which features a fourth-floor rooftop terrace bar surrounded by 28 grandiose hoodoo. The spot has become an institution among Yangshuo travelers because of its magnificent views and cheap drinks, along with the charisma of Monkey Jane, a local boniface known for hyperactive joviality. Yangshuo's ultimate nighttime offering is Liu San Jie Show, created by dynamo director Zhang Yimou. In accordance with Zhang's signature style, the exceptionally well-choreographed performance features a cast of 500, including many local villagers, clad in Zhuang, Miao and Yao ethnic attire. The technicolored performance is set in the 2,200-seat Natural Theater, so named because it occupies a roughly 2-km stretch along the junction of the Lijiang and Tianjia rivers. Twelve karsts with names, such as Scholar's Page Hill, ring the stage area - that is, the river itself, as most of the show takes place aboard watercraft. During the daytime, most visitors head for the hinterlands to explore the countryside.
In recent years, a growing number of holiday retreats have been sprouting in the villages girdling Yangshuo, accommodating those who don't even want to bother with downtown. The first of these was Outside Inn, an abandoned hamlet in Chaolong village refurbished into a rural resort. This cluster of farmhouses clinging to the foot of a limestone hillock is a good base for wandering the countryside. The patch of geologically exhilarating wilderness adjacent to the retreat, known as The Lost World among foreign guests, is ideal for hiking. And those who bike the surrounding area discover secret caverns and ancient bridges scattered among farmhouses and hillocks terraced to look like the tops of honey dippers. But whatever your starting point, two wheels are better than four for surveying Yangshuo's rustic areas. The location has become internationally acclaimed as a cycling spot and is chock-a-block with bike rental stands. A costlier way to canvass the topography that's gaining popularity with visitors is hot air ballooning. From above, the otherworldly karsts make pastoral Yangshuo resemble an upside down egg carton made of rock. Local operators are hailed for exceptional dexterity in maneuvering their aircrafts, and will even descend to hover just above riverboat venders so clients can buy beverages and snacks. The landscapes are laced with rivers and brooks, and these waterways offer great rafting and kayaking opportunities. Cormorant fishing is a local tradition that arose from the abundance of watercourses to spill over into the tourism sector. Anglers wrap snares around the trained bird's throats loosely enough to allow the cormorants to breathe but tightly enough to make sure they can't swallow. The leashed waterfowl crash into the water like avian missiles and resurface with beaks full of fish, which are retrieved by their handlers. Once the baskets are filled to their brims with squirming silver, the birds are rewarded with a handful of fingerlings. Today, many locals still feed themselves through cormorant fishing. But they do so through fees paid by voyeuristic tourists rather than by eating or selling their catches. Some view this as one among many signs that Yangshuo has moved too far from a specimen of authentic rural China to tourist kitsch. But those who spend time in Yangshuo will discover that from Xijie to its remotest villages, the area offers the best of both worlds.
 (China Daily 09/03/2009 page19) |
