BIKING IN YANGSHUO

I heard Yangshuo was good for biking and after not getting to ride a bike for 2 and a half weeks I was really looking forward to renting a bike. I spent some time researching bike rentals in Yangshuo. There are countless places to rent bikes, but most of the bikes are pieces of shit. I found a place called Bike Asia that had a good reputation. I stopped by the night before and talked to them. They hooked me up with a pretty decent mountain bike, some tools, a spare tube, a lock, a pump and helmet... all of this for about 10 bucks / day. Bike Asia also had some pretty decent maps and the woman working there gave me (once she realized i wasn't a total noob to riding) some advice on some longer self guided rides.

I took off in the morning and headed up to the village of Xing Ping, one of the most famous scenic villages. It was about a 36k ride. I spent the afternoon in Xing Ping, riding around some of the dirt roads and trails and just relaxing.

Instead of going back the same way, I took a ferry (yup a ferry!!) across the river and decided to head back a different way. The woman at Bike Asia told me that the other route had a lot more hills and was a bit more isolated... both of which were definitely understatements!!!!

After crossing the river and riding through a few small villages the road / path just kept going uphill. At one point I got a bit worried because I was running out of water and hadn't seen anyone for about an hour!!! Somehow bikes always seem to get me in trouble! After about another hour I finally came to a peak that over looked the entire valley! I thought this would be the last hill, but I was wrong! The next 25k was rolling hills, which is still better then just going straight up!

The highlight of the ride (well other the skitching off a dump truck up a hill.. skitching is where you hold onto a car / bus / truck and let them pull you) was finally getting to a paved road that led back to Yangshou. Although by that point I probably rode at least 80k, i got some energy up and bombed all the hills back into town. (check out the video at the bottom!!!)

Although I got pretty lost at points, I managed to make it back into Yangshuo right as the sun was setting! This ride was definitely the highlights of my trip!

Riding some dirt roads outside the village of Xing Ping.

This was my best friend for the day! I gotta say it held up very well.

Another shot from Xing Ping.

After hanging out in Xing Ping for a while (I was trying to avoid the extreme afternoon heat) I took a ferry across the river and started my ride home.

This was the last village i saw before starting my massive climb into the hills!

This view made the hellish climb a bit more worth it!!!

I was so happy to see the sun setting, not because of the nice glow of light, but because it was so extremely hot!

I definitely rode through some parts that most foreigners don't see! and i definitely got some looked when i flew by people!

The last photo i took before decided to mount my camera to my bike! See video below!!!

YANGSHUO!!!

The next day I caught a bus to Yangshuo, about an hour to two hours south of Guilin. By the time i got to Yangshuo it was pretty late into the afternoon. I was starving but I decided to go shoot some photos instead because the light was awesome. My first impression of Yangshou was "WOW!" This place was exactly what I was looking for. It had a slower pace, plenty of nature related activities, cheap food and lots of nice hostels (something Guilin seemed to lack).

After getting dinner I headed back to the hostel I was staying at. I played some pool, made some friends and then called it an early night. The one main reason I came to Yangshuo was to ride bikes. I decided I'd get up early the next day and log some serious miles on a bike.

This is the main spot downtown on the river. So beautiful!

This photo is actually from the last day I was in Yangshuo. Two girls I met (Lemon and Carmel, yes that were their names!) were nice enough to show me a scenic point in the city know as TV Tower (due to it having a TV tower ontop). I thought it was going to be a tourist spot, but as we climbed to the top I quickly realized it was not. The only other people we saw on the hike were workers climbing to the top to make a repair. Unfortunately it was super hazy, but this gives a good idea of what the surrounding area looked like!

This was a smaller village about a 20 minute walk outside Yangshuo.

On the walk to the village.

Rice patties a few minutes outside Yangshuo.

About 5 minutes after this photo, Crane and I (one of the girls who worked at the hostel I was staying at and who was nice enough to show me around) came across a house with a recently deceased woman. In the smaller villages they keep the bodies in the home for several days before burning them.

This was the main street right outside my hostel.

In china, the girls do not like to get tan. One thing they do to avoid this is attaching umbrellas to their bicycles. I saw it everywhere I went, but just couldn't get over it!

Nice light in Yangshuo.

GUILIN!!!

After spending the first 2 + weeks in major cities, I decided I wanted to see something more nature based. A good friend of mine (Hey Kristen thanks for the advice!!!) traveled through China and recommended checking out Guilin and Yangshuo, which are famous for their limestone peaks (the back of the 20 yuan note). Although I would have loved to have taken a train from Shanghai to Guilin, I ended up flying. (It was about the same price and the flight was about an hour, the train would have been about 20 hours). Kristen mentioned that Guilin was alright but the real spot to check out was Yangshuo. So I flew into Guilin and stayed for the night and the next morning I took off to Yangshuo (next blog post).

Guilin was pretty and there were some good restaurants there, but overall it was pretty touristy and not in a good way. In the long run I'm really glad I only stay for a night. If you are heading this way you'll most likely have to pass through Guilin, since Yangshuo does not have an airport or train station, but I would recommend not spending much time in Guilin. Here are a few photos:

SHANGHAI!!!

After we wrapped up production, I decided i was going to stay in China for an extra 12 days. I wasn't exactly sure where I wanted to go but by the end of the shoot I figured out a game plan. Although I already saw a lot of big cities, I decided to head to Shanghai since it was only a few hours away by train. After a difficult time buying a train ticket, I was on my way!!! (As a side note, China is a somewhat difficult country to travel in due to not only the language barrier but also the fact they use a whole different written language!!! Make sure to get key phases, locations, etc written in characters before trying to buy a train ticket. I had this all written down and still had a hard time)

I love traveling by train and unfortunately this was one of the only train trips I got to take. The train i was on was very clean and pretty fast. After 3 hours I was in Shanghai.

I only stayed in Shanghai for 2 days and both days were pretty overcast but I really liked the city. Honestly its probably because it is much more western then Beijing and felt a lot more manageable then Beijing. I spent my time in Shanghai just wondering around and found some pretty cool markets off the beaten path.

The only downer to Shanghai was all the construction, even worst then other cities. The 2010 World Expo is being held in Shanghai, so there is a massive amount of construction currently going on. The famous "Burd" was all torn up, which was disappointing. Oh well, I'm sure I'll pass through Shanghai again at some point in my life!

Looking towards the Burd

Most of Shanghai's water front looked like this due to all the construction.

Back alleyways in the "old town" section of Shanghai

Shanghai alleyways

The closest thing i saw to "street art."

About 5 minutes away from here are the all the tourist markets... glad i found these first.

There are still a lot of bikes in Shanghai. I'm sure not as many as 10 years ago, but there are still a lot.

and then in total contrast is the worlds fastest train. This thing was pretty remarkable to ride.