The Thousands of Peaks of Yangshou

Our next stop after Shanghai was Yangshou, in Southern China's Guangxi province. Instantly (well as instantly as a 24hr sleeper train ride can be!) the landscape, people and overall feel of the country changed. This area is depicted in many Chinese paintings and travel brochures for very good reason- the karst landscape is stunning- flowing rivers and limestone hills rising out of lush green paddy fields. The town of Yangshou is quaint, but unfortunately we were there at the peak of Chinese May Golden week holidays, which meant that the popular streets were best avoided during the middle of the day.

Yangshou, with its cobblestone, non-trafficked streets (yeah!) is dwarfed by the beautiful surrounding karst landscape

Lush green foliage, water and bridges make for a very picturesque landscape

And then at night shadow and light makes for a different view

One of our days in Yangshou we spent on an organised boat trip along the Li river. It was a great day, and with a ticket that cost less than $10 we were pleased with the trip- the company was good, including quite a few Aussies, as was the weather.

An ox (?) strolling along the bank of the Li river

Some boats, similar to the one we were on, with limestone karsts in the background plunging into the Li river

About an hour into the trip we were advised that we had to get off the boat, as apparently we were on a vessel that was not licenced to carry foreign tourists, and a police boat was patrolling the river. To gain a licence, you have pay high taxes to the government, which out boat owner, a local farmer, could not afford. This also explained the low cost of our ticket compared to other trips we had seen advertised. We all got off the boat and trudged through farmland to an area along the river were the boat picked us up again- apparently the police boat was no longer in sight. This on-off routine happened a couple of times, and eventually, to get us back to our drop-off point, we had to unfold the chairs we had been sitting on and duck down as we tried to evade the authorities- more adventure than we had bargained for!

Illegal cargo trying to get back to safety!

The next day we went for something a little more sedate and hired bikes to explore the area outside of Yangshou.

Trent riding (well posing) next to some stunning scenery

The water-drenched farmland of Yangshou

A farmer and cow look tiny against the karst backdrop

After Yangshou it was back on a sleeper train to Kunming in the Yunnan province- heading further west.

Trent in our comfortable soft sleeper cabin that we shared with two other travellers