My boatman decided to wait with me until his friend comes and picks me up. Very good idea, since I do not even know what his friend looks like. We only waited a short while before his friend really came. He was on a motorcycle and this will be my official transport going back to the town of Xingping.
I really appreciate them taking the effort of sending someone to fetch me. I was expecting them to just leave me here to figure out how to get back to town. I guess this type of thing happens quite often to them that they already know what to do if the river police stubbornly refuses to leave.
I paid my boatman and we were off in the motorcycle. It was a very exhilarating ride since we pass by the Xingping countryside with the karst mountains lining the dirt path. Yes, it was a dirt path though it wasn’t that rough, only some parts were. Fortunately for us the road dry so it was quite easy to navigate.
One of the places I absolutely needed to see was what I call the RMB20 View. I didn’t know if there was a special name for this but my driver knew what I was referring to and brought me there. This spot was along the Li River and is known because this is exactly where the back of the RMB20 note was taken.
There is a reason why they chose that spot, it was absolutely magnificent. And I was there in a very gloomy day. I’m sure it would have been better on a bright sunny day. The spot itself is on an elevated portion of the bank of the river so you get to see an elevated view of the Li River together with its magnificent limestone mountains. Although the illustration on the RMB note is not 100% accurate, you can immediately see the resemblance to the actual thing.
As I went through my wallet looking for a RMB20 note, I was shocked to find I didn’t have one with me! I frantically went through the wallet again but none. As my luck woud have it, my driver has a brand new crisp RMB20 note and promptly lent me one to take a photo with. It was as if he knew what I was looking for. I guess a lot of tourists have been doing this all this time.
There were two other people also taking photos and they also seemed to be hobbyists as they came complete with tripods. I didn’t bother brining one as it would be too troublesome to lug around such equipment.
After a bunch of shots, we headed back to the town itself and he left me where I needed to take the bus. I’m thanked him and off we went. I’m glad how this river cruise turned out. I managed to take the cruise, hike and ride on motorbike through the countryside all for the price of one cruise. I guess that not so legal option I chose was a good one.
Will I come back here? I would definitely love to come back, but I need to make sure that the weather is nice since I have too many gloomy overcast shots of this place. It doesn’t do the place justice. Forutnately, Yangshuo is easy enough to get to from the main international airports so coming back here would not be that big a problem.
[xmlgm {http://www.worldwanderings.net/kml/Yangshuo.kmz} zoom=14]