Xingping is a town in the North Guangxi province. It is about a 45 mins bus ride from Yanshuo, but be cautious, the bus ride right now will be very bumpy, because they are fixing up the roads. (Bumpy, as in you will be bouncing up and down in your seat numerous times). Xingping is probably best known for its 20RMB view...literally it is the view that is on the Chinese 20 Yuan Note. I would recommend anyone who decided to visit Guilin/Yanshuo to stay a night or two in Xingping. This town has a lot of character and the views are definitely worth it!
In Xingping, we stayed at This Old Place Hostel, which was by far my favorite hostel of this trip. The lobby area has an oven where they serve wood-fired pizza. Our rooms, as well as the rooftop, had amazing views (or as we learned in Chinese, the view is considered to be 如诗如画-as beautiful as a painting). The overall atmosphere of the place was much like that of a small community. Everyone spent their evenings chatting in the lobby over pizza and a movie that played from a projector.
Tiana and Marissa, twinning it up, outside the hostel
The girls had a room with two beds, one larger bed for two and one smaller bed. They guys had a four-person dorm style room. Both had private bathrooms.
On one of the days, we hiked up Laozhai Mountain in Xingping. Unfortunately, the days that we were there, there was no sun so we weren't able to see a sunrise or a sunset, but luckily it was not foggy, so we did get to see the Chinese 20Yuan Note view (shown above). (This weather sounds oddly familiar...seems like we had the same kind during our trip to Huangshan...just our luck). The hike is about an hour long, but once you get to the end of the trail, don't stop there. Keep climbing up to the top of the rocks. Your eyes will thank you later when you see the view.
The Chinese 20 Yuan Note view.
Xingping is located along the Li River.
This wasn't the original bamboo rafting that we had intended to do, but due to weather, this was the only option in terms of bamboo boats. We took this bamboo boat "cruise" around the Li River. The trip was about an hour and a half to two hours long.
Yanshuo
Yanshuo is small town in the same province as above, bordered by the Li River on one side. It is easily accessible from Guilin by boat or bus (about an hour away). Yanshuo is filled with many outdoor activities. However, once again due to weather issues, we had many restrictions on what we could and couldn't do. Out of all our locations for spring break, I believe Yanshuo definitely did not lack in the number of tourists, considering the number of restaurant employees who were able to speak English to try to get us to eat at their restaurant.
Thankfully, our first activity, cave exploring, was not affected by the weather. We drove about 30 mins to Gold Water Cave, on the outskirts of Yanshuo.
Gettin' down and dirty...
Within the cave, we took a mud bath and then unwound in the hot springs. This may have been the most relaxing part of the entire trip.
After a soothing nap in the hot springs, we headed into the main town center, and walked along West Street, where they have rows of Chinese restaurants, Western restaurants, and street food all mixed into one city center. The main town center of Yanshuo actually reminded me a lot of Prague's Mala Strana.
Since waterfall climbing was closed, we decided the next best thing was to go... zip lining through the mountains.
Next stop: headed back into Guilin for a day!
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