Finding Yucun, The Fishing Village

It was still raining when I got up, so I took my time getting out of bed. My intention today was to find the Fishing Village that's near Xingping. Yesterday I tried to hike to it and got lost, today I had a better idea of the route and took photos of the drawn map at my hostel. The map makes it look pretty easy, the problem is that I have no idea whether that route is a street, a paved pathway or a dirt road or a combination of all of those. But I figured wherever I ended up it would be interesting.

As I walked through the rural area, I passed a family that waved to me and said "hello" in English. One of the little kids seemed particularly excited and was full of smiles. I waved back and continued on. Walked for another twenty minutes and found myself walking back towards Xingping. Whatever route I took, I did a complete circle. I sighed, went back to the hotel and asked if they could write down the name of the fishing village so that I could ask people. They wrote it down and told me how to say it.

This made such a difference. Every person I saw I simply said the name and I was pointed in the right direction. Pretty soon I found my way back to that family I saw earlier and though they laughed when they realized I had walked in a circle, they pointed me in the right direction once I told them where I was going.

The trail turned from a nice paved path to a narrow muddy trail. It went tright through a mountain pass and thick foilage. I was getting increasingly dirty and wet and on top of that the rain got stronger. Hiking with an umbrella, a rain poncho that barely fits me and taking pictures was a bit of a challenge. I just laughed when I thought about what I must look like to the people here. It was pretty foggy, but ocassionally the fog would lift and I could see some beautiful scenery.

I got pretty excited when the trail started heading down and I could see the river. I knew I was close and felt quite happy that I finally found this place. Third times the charm! The hilarious thing was when I finally entered the village and saw bus loads of tourists. I guess this was a popular boat stop. I didn't see a single fisherman and what few sterets there were, they were lined with tables selling tourist trinkets, food and drinks. The people looked at me curiously, wondering why I was covered in mud. Ah well, the hike was nice. I took a bamboo raft back to Xingping.

Back at the hostel I met up with Matt and Lauren for lunch. I met them on the boat from Guilin and we talked about hiking up Laozhai Shan, the mountain I went up yesterday. I suggested we go up after lunch if the clouds lifted. Lauren was a bit hesitant but Matt and I managed to convince her. It turned out to be a really good decision because the views we had were just jaw-dropping. It's hard to believe a place like this exists, even when you're looking right at it. It was this view that made me come to Xingping. We took many photos and stayed on the summit for a bit before heading back down.

Finding the Fishing Village:

Heading back to Xingping via Li River:

Views from Laozhai Hill