Yangshuo: Biking

I went on a long bikeride last week. I didn't begin with the intention of taking a long bikeride - I thought I'd be gone just one hour. I started heading north from the village where I'm living, along a dirt road that brought me through some other small villages and lots of rice paddies and fields. When I connected back with a main road, part of me wanted to turn around, since it was threatening rain and I had no umbrella or raincoat, but I was biking through new territory, farther from Yangshuo than I had ever journeyed, so I was tempted by the unknown around every corner.

 

So I kept going. I turned onto a different paved road that led up toward the hills, where I saw a few more villages and lots of orange orchards. It started getting hilly - and with my one-speed bike, I had to walk up some of the steep parts. At this point I could see on my map that there was a village wthin striking distance, although I am not sure if I ever really made it to the village - at one point I tried to ask some people where I was, but the language barrier was too tough, even with my map (which had town names in Chinese and English). But eventually I came to an intersection with signs in English - I could go back the way I came, or take a right turn to loop back a different way to Yangshuo.

 

At this point I met some other tourists who were also biking (and also a bit lost). We chose the new loop back to Yangshuo, which ended up being the best part of the ride. We went up and down lots of rolling hills - had some views of rice teraces at first, and then TONS of orange orchards - the scenery at some points almost looked like California, and it looked completely different from Yangshuo, which at this point was only 12 km away.

 

The last part of the ride was all downhill, which was excellent - down a winding road into the valley, and then into the center of Yangshuo. Overall, the bikeride was about 35 km.

 

What struck me most about this adventure was that the countryside here goes on forever. From Yangshuo I could bike in any direction, mostly on dirt roads or narrow paved roads, and go from village to village - the scenery changes quite quickly, but it goes on and on for hundreds of miles. When I was biking, I had an urge to keep going, because I feared that if I turned around, I'd miss out on the great view that was just around the next bend.

 

Now I have a few more days to explore Yangshuo, and I hope to do some exploring like this when I'm in Yunnan next week.