tips for Li River Hiking

instead of spending some money to board a boat to enjoy china's most beautiful river, many now consider to take a relatively leisure walk along its bank, hiking along the li river. the river stretchs from Guilin to Yangshuo for some 84 kilometers, most of the highlights, however, come over from the yangdi to Xingping part, that where most hiker choose to walk along this part. the trip generally needs around 6 hours, depending on your pace, anyway. starting at Yangdi, there are three cross points that you have to take. the first one is right at the Yangdi dock. the second one comes near a village called Langshi Village, and near the Nine Horses Mural Hill you will encounter the third one, if you want to further downstream to the fishing village which president Bill Cliton vistied, you have to take one more cross. In peak season, for the boat which serves taking you to the other part can't not meet the great demand, so at some points it may very crowded, noisy, which you may not like. you will find a lot of bamboo crafts stop right at the cross points for business. but I recommend you to avoid using them for safety sake, most of them are operated by the locals unlicessed, just suppose what if they have you fallen  into the water..   When traveling in China, the toilet is a big concern. you won't find one decent toilet along the route(yangdi-xingping)except the one in Yangdi dock. so you 'd bladder yourself there unless you are willing to enter a off-odor one with your nose pinched. There are few shops en ruote except the few ones in the docks. so you may consider bring your water and other things you probably need along. a few restaurants will be found along the way, but usually very crowded especially at lunch time and food is little expensive than that in Guilin and yangshuo. but the food they serve are really delicious, authetic local flavor. the part of Langshi to Xingping is a bit tough many on slope sections and many obscure crossings which may cause you to take a wrong one. some foreign visitors once said they have lost their way up to hill along this part. many touts along this part often their services to you, the items they are selling including, fried peanuts, red skin potatos, steamed eggs and so on. which are usually very cheap, take steamed red skin potatos for example, one yuan for a bigger one and a smaller will cost only 0.5 yuan.   dOn't miss the highlights, Langshi scenery, Nine Horses Mural Hill and the Yellow Cloth Shoarl. You may need a guide or you will some essence of the sights. There are many cheap bus waiting in Xingping bus station for Yangshuo, the bus station, howeve, is not easy to find, so ask the local many of them can speak a few things in english and they often very friendly to help. the fishing village is still 1 hour walk. you can stay one night at xingping and then proceed there the next day.

I had a trek along the river last may which proved to be one of my most memorable tours in China.   I saw loads of water buffalo gazing by the river bank. that's amazing. [image]http://bbs.guilinlife.com/UploadFile/2006-4/20064823405141136.jpg[/image]screen.width-550)this.style.width=screen.width-550;" border=0>