Yangdi - Xingping

Walking trail on the most impressive section of the Li river, between Yangdi and Xingping.

According to the "official" map of the trail the route starts after crossing the river by ferry at Yangdi . We had been told at our hotel that the route was closed and we better join the other tourists and take the boat all the way until Xingping. We still decided to try as other "wikilocers" had done this route recently. At Yangdi we did see the ferry crossing the river but for some reason we couldn't buy tickets. Nobody was speaking english at the village and the written translations provided were not very helpful. In the meantime, an old lady was trying to sell us something from the moment we arrived, and only after using Pleco we figured out that she was offering transport to another point on the route, after the second ferry crossing (which was not operating), on the same side of the river as Yangdi. Eventually we accepted her offer (100RMB) without knowing very well where the driver was taking us. See the map for the starting point which I know now was the village of Xianei. The driver showed the signs which we could follow and there were indeed arrows painted in red on the ground and even yellow ribons from some eco trail that had been run there. When we strarted the hike we were a bit aprehensive as we were expecting to be close to the river shore and not somewhere between the hills. It turned out that this part of the route was deep in the forest and extremely beautiful, and a rare oportuinty to be surrounded by nature in China. We eventually joined the river and all the rest was pretty straight forward: the signs lead you all the way to the ferry crossing. Here's the summary of the trail.
1. Took the public bus from Yangshuo to Yangdi (around 1h)
2. Drive from Yangdi to Xianei
3. Started hiking at Xianei. Initally a rocky trail which turns into a dirt path by the river. It crosses a few villages on the way.
4. The path disapears in certain open areas of the river bank but the signs kept us on the track. When the signs also disapeared.. we just followed the river until the next path or road. At around 9km we arrived at Lengshui where a ferry is crossing the river back and forth.
5. From here there is a paved sidewalk of 4km along the river until the "20 Yuan scenic area" just before Xingping. Alternatively there is a road cutting through that can be done by bycicle or motorbike.
6. Bus to Yangshuo from Xingping (40min).

It is a challenging hike as sign posts are inexistent and I don't think the arrows that guided us will last much longer. Good side of this is that many tourists are discouraged to do the walk and you've all the landscape to yourself (in contrast, if you choose to go by boat, the river is filled with noisy cruise boats from Guillin).