Xingping

I had been obsessing over how I was going to get to do the hike from Yangdi to Xingping for the last two weeks. I had read a number of accounts of this hike and all had reported it to be the most amazing hike as it is along the most scenic part of the Li River. It was to be much better than taking an expensive cruise.  (Note: All of the posts were around 4-5 years old.) 

It is a 5 hour hike with three ferry crossings required.   Too much for Neela probably but Luke and I were going to maybe try it.   Until we started trying to figure out the logistics.   We never got the same answer twice as we started looking into it.   

You could go to Yangdi, but sometimes the ticket office is closed so you should get your ticket ahead of time.   You could just take bamboo boats but only 4 fit in a boat so you have to buy 3 extra seats.   The ticket price is 100 yuan just to walk.   The price is 160 yuan to cross the river to start.   No, the ferry costs 50 yuan.  The boat costs 200 yuan per person.  You can just go to the dock and bargain.  It is cheaper if you start in Xingping.  And on and on...  You really can never be sure how anything will work ahead of time here.

Well, we finally thought we had figured out a way for us all to go and at least see part of this river section.  We got off the bus in Xingping and immediately had 5 women shouting "Hello!  Bamboo boat!" at us and tailing us through town.     

Turns out that no, you cannot just show up at the dock and bargain for a ride (all government regulated now?) so those ladies turned out to actually be helpful to us. We translated a sentence for them using Google translate to make sure we could get off halfway and hike back. They got Neela on for free (she is at least 2" taller than the free height everywhere but most people let her in free anyhow and just pretend she is close enough!) and also convinced them to let us have 5 on a boat.   

We got on our bamboo boat and the driver fired up the super loud motor and we took off into the stream of boats.   Dave felt like we were setting off to storm the shores of Normandy with all those boats taking off.

So, it wasn't really the idyllic trip down the Li River that I had hoped for.   I tried to use selective vision and hearing to imagine what this river experience would be like without all of the other people and boats.  It would be AMAZING going down it in a canoe!  

Alas, only in my imagination......

Marnie