the yangshuo countryside & xianggong hill

Friday, January 30: After leaving the tea plantation, we head north, passing through boundless farmland.  The kumquat orchards sprawl over rolling mountains, less sharp around the edges than the karsts; these mountains are clustered in the midst of the karsts between Yangshuo and Guilin.

Here are two views of the same valley, but in the first one you can see the karsts in the distance, and in the second you can see the road to the village.  For some reason, I love that little road, snuggling up to the edge of that mountain.

view of a farming village along the way

the view of the road to the village with karsts in the distance

Along the way, we stop at a view-point where we can see, to our north, the famous karsts of Xingping, and beneath us, the Li River winding its way through the jagged peaks.

view of the Li River

View of the Li River

me with Mike at a stopping point overlooking the Li River

View north to Xingping

View south to farmland and karsts

We continue our drive with Vivian’s husband.  He knows all the same places to stop that Vivian stopped with me in October.  I don’t even need to ask him to pull over.  This is a gorgeous valley filled with villages, kumquat farms, forests and other farmland.

valley of karsts

I love how the karsts fade into the mist the further away they get.

karst landscape

to infinity and beyond

stunning landscape

final view of the valley

Finally we end up at Xianggong Hill, where we climb hundreds of steps to the top; here we can see Xingping to our south, with its CNY 20 Banknote View and Chaoban Hill, among many others.  To the north, we can see Nine-Horse Fresco Hill.  Other peaks around Xianggong Hill have names such as Wave Stone View, Lad Worships Goddess, Grandpa Watching Apple, Chicken Cage Hill, Lion Hill, Pen Holder Peak, and Carp Wall.

Looking south to Xingping

The view north to Nine-Horse Fresco Hill

Looking west to Lion Hill and other peaks whose names I don’t know

Northerly view

Village across the Li River from Xianggong Hill

Mike atop Xianggong HIll

Looking across the Li River from Xianggong Hill to the villages

Me atop Xianggong Hill

Looking northeasterly

After we leave Xianggong Hill, we continue on our way to Guilin, making one more photo stop along the way.

Green fields and karsts

marching orders

as far as the eye can see

Back in Guilin, which is just another sprawling Chinese city, we head directly to our hotel, The Guilinyi Royal Palace, where we pamper ourselves on the last night of our holiday together.

heading to guilin: kumquat orchards & the seven star tea plantation

Friday, January 30: Our original plan was to take bicycle rides in the Yangshuo countryside, to take a bamboo raft ride down the Yulong River, and to rent an electric bike to explore the mountains and kumquat orchards north of Yangshuo.  The bicycle ride we did take was short and rainy.  The Yulong River rafts were closed for the season and weren’t due to open until Chinese New Year, or February 18.  And the rain prevented us from renting e-bikes to explore the countryside north of Yangshuo.

Weighing our remaining options, we arrange with Vivian at our hotel to have her husband drive us through the countryside north of Yangshuo on our way to Guilin.  We tell her we’re checking out a day early, and she reminds us we’ll lose our money for the hotel room tonight.  We don’t care.  Her husband will meet us at 10:00 a.m. to drive us through the countryside, with our suitcases in the van, and he will take us directly to our hotel in Guilin when the drive is over.

We eat our breakfast and take a walk around the hotel before we leave.  Across the street, we enjoy our last gray view of the Li River.

The Li River view across the street from our hotel

Behind our hotel, we find this pretty little courtyard.

the pretty little courtyard behind the hotel (Photo by Mike)

And we take a parting shot of the Yangshuo River View Hotel.

Yangshuo River View Hotel (Photo by Mike)

Outside of town, we come to rolling hills covered in kumquat orchards.  At this time of year, they’re all covered in plastic sheeting to protect them from the rain.  In October when I was here, Vivian herself took me on a motorbike ride through this same countryside.  It was so much fun riding on the back of her e-bike with the wind in my hair!  The weather was lovely then.  You can see the differences in the countryside in this post: a motorbike ride through orange groves to xianggong hill

the drive through the countryside north of Yangshuo

kumquat orchards protected with plastic sheeting from the rain

kumquat orchards north of Yangshuo

mountains and kumquat orchards north of Yangshuo

Our first stop on today’s drive is the Seven Star Green Tea Plantation.  In Chinese, it’s called Qi Xian Feng tea plantation and it’s about 14 km from the center of Yangshuo  According to a brochure from the plantation: It is about 600 meters above sea level.  Cloud and mist surround it perennially. Specially when it rains, the whole plantation looks like a charming beauty in white. 

I just love Chinese descriptions of places!

We walk around the tea plantation.  Luckily today it’s not raining, just awfully cloudy.

Entrance to the Seven Star Tea Plantation

The green tea plants aren’t covered up.  In the distance, the covered kumquat orchards stretch as far as the eye can see.

Seven Star Tea Plantation

Views of the kumquat orchards from the Seven Star Tea Plantation

kumquat orchards

The plantation is a lot browner than when I was here in October.  If you’d like to see what the plantation looked like in sunnier weather, you can check out: the seven star tea plantation and return to yangshuo

Seven Star Tea Plantation

Seven Star Tea Plantation

Seven Star Tea Plantation

Seven Star Tea Plantation

Seven Star Tea Plantation

Seven Star Tea Plantation

Seven Star Tea Plantation

Seven Star Tea Plantation

Seven Star Tea Plantation

view of orchards from Seven Star Tea Plantation

view from Seven Star Tea Plantation

Seven Star Tea Plantation

Seven Star Tea Plantation (Photo by Mike)

Seven Star Tea Plantation (Photo by Mike)

Chicken at Seven Star Tea Plantation (Photo by Mike)

After we walk around the tea plantation, a young lady performs a tea ceremony for us.  I’m not a big fan of tea, especially green tea, but today it’s a warm and welcome treat.

a little tea ceremony

After the tea plantation, we continue on our drive through the countryside, heading for Xianggong Hill, where we get marvelous views of Xingping and the Li River.