After 9 months in China, I finally went in the real wild China. I was several times in Shanghai, went to Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Changzhou, Hebei, Qinghai, but I didn’t have the time to visit those areas really, and I didn’t like the countryside around these cities. Just think about high towers where thousands of people live, between factories, a coal fired power plant and high ways ! Not really exciting.

After a last night in Beijing where we enjoyed a Tepanyaki (Japanese restaurant, all you can eat… all you can drink…) we took the plane to Guilin and reached the very touristic city of Yangshuo. This is one of the most visited spots in China (after Tian an Men square in Beijing).

The Guilin, or rather, Yangshuo landscape is represented on the 20 RMB bill in China ! We spent 3 nights in Yangshuo, 2 days of biking and boating ! We enjoyed going where no tourist go, and one day, with our “tandem” – 2 persons bicycle – we went uphill, a nightmare, it was hot, we had no drink no food, and it was at least 38 degrees, we collapsed on the road, finally we found a small restaurant, the watermelon they offered us, saved us. A few hundred meters further, we arrived where we wanted, at the river, and found a boat that took us and our “tandem” for a small cruise !

happy to arrive finally at the river !

After biking and cruising, time for motorbiking. Renting a “jialing” (Chinese brand), we went 70 km north of Guilin, to the rice files of longji titian. What a welcome when we arrived their ! Most of the locals were surprised seeing laowais (white people) arriving by bike ! The sunset above the rice fiels was great !

🙂

The next day, riding back to Guilin, we knew we needed to find a gas station quickly, unfortunately, we ran out of fuel before finding the station (mauvais oeil). Fortunately, la bonne etoile, we found a bus that took us to the first station.

Motorbike in the bus !

Back in Guilin, we admired the 2 pagodas before taking the night train to Kunming, capital city of Yunnan !