Justine and Dylan’s Travel Blog

I’m sure we all have images in our minds of what certain countries or areas are like. Mine of rural China (without thinking about it too much of course) was of rice paddies, typical Chinese straw hats, bicycles, etc. I’m sure you’ve seen the postcard. As I mentioned previously, the China we saw everywhere so far was quite different. Modern, hazy, lots of construction, even when getting well out of the cities. We obviously never made it to Inner Mongolia or towards Tibet, but still well and truly into central China, away from the affluent east coast.

So then, apart from the unique landscape (karst limestone hills, steep and towering over an otherwise flat country side) typical for this part of southern China, in Chaolong we finally saw some of the scenery that I had always had in my mind. It was only a few kilometres down the road from Yangshuo, but still seemed as authentic (with small houses and streets and locals turning up on bicycles to work their rice paddies) as Yangshuo is touristy.

Of course things are changing (in Chaolong we stayed at a local guesthouse which had hot water, airconditioning and TV, run by a Dutch guy), but compared to Yangshuo it was very scenic. I guess the problem is (just as it is in Nepal btw), that the locals welcome the advent of electricity, modern roads and everything else, whereas the tourists come wanting to see the place minus all these changes. It’s easy as a tourist to “complain” about these developments as they only have to stay in the place for a day or two. As always, I guess the challenge is to find a balance.

Yangshuo I have to say was incredibly touristy though. A great base from which to see the (very scenic) surrounding area, but not much else. Fortunately, this is what we had planned; the bikeride around the karst hills and the cruise and swim up the Li River were good fun and one of the highlights of our stay in China (and great to not be visiting a place for once to go and see another temple or equivalent).