Now for something completely different – a 6 hour 13 minute train ride took us the 700 miles from Chengdu down to the South West of China for a more relaxing time amongst spectacular scenery. The train was almost empty and it was a pleasant journey across the central China plains and up into the mountains. Debbie commented that the rivers we passed were very fast flowing, and we later learned that there had been devastating floods the previous day, only 30 miles or so from our destination, and that a typhoon warning was in effect. SH*T! Thankfully there was no impact on our travel plans, but sadly 6 people had died and that put things somewhat into perspective. We knew that there was a typhoon risk for Hong Kong at this time of year, but they are well equipped to deal with extreme weather – rural China is far more exposed to the forces of nature.

Our first stop was Guilin (pronounced Gway-lin), just an overnight before embarking on a River Li cruise the following day. Disappointingly, after almost 3 weeks in the big cities of China where we had expected to be scammed but were fine, we were ‘taken for a ride’. In China, most people use DiDi (a bit like Uber) for taxis, and we had too but found just taking a taxi from the rank was more convenient when arriving at railway stations. On arrival at Guilin Xi (Guilin West) station, we headed to the line of waiting licensed taxis, vaguely noting that we were the only ones going in that direction and that the drivers were more pushy and there wasn’t the official dispatcher that there had been in the big cities. Anyway, we insisted on the meter being used and set off for the 11Km ride to our hotel. According to DiDi, this was a 30-40 Yuan trip (maximum £4), so Debbie was gobsmacked then the meter said 157 Yuan on arrival – that’s £16! The China travel forum on Facebook concurred that we’d been ripped off, probably a meter running at 4x speed, and advised Debbie that you should always use DiDi. It’s probably less than we’d pay for a similar distance taxi ride at home, but that’s not the point and Debbie was disproportionally p*ssed off by the scam.

Our hotel – Holiday Inn Express Guilin City Centre (link) was fine and only £35/night including breakfast, we got a Platinum upgrade to the biggest room they had, we got our laundry done and we found an excellent Indian restaurant, before being collected early the next morning for the drive to the cruise boat terminal 45 minutes down river. We’d booked a 4* river cruise online, with a complimentary upgrade to upper deck seating, and were happy enough with the price but did realise we could probably have got it cheaper by shopping around in person in Guilin. It turned out that the online agency had added a 100% mark up to the actual price of the boat trip, but we did get a nice car transfer and saved ourselves some inevitable hassle. And it seemed that we’d got one of the nicer and more exclusive boats, rather elegant with just 40 passenger seats at tables across 2 indoor decks, far fewer than the other vessels. Debbie had commented in advance that it’d probably be like a Nile cruise – with a convoy of boats all heading off at the same time – and she was right. Along with about 15 other boats we set off downstream for an utterly spectacular cruise to Yangshuo – which only took just over 3 hours instead of 4 as the river was flowing so fast due to the floodwaters. Through a mesmerising limestone karst landscape, famously depicted on the 20 Yuan banknote (we wondered why everyone suddenly started taking pictures facing the back of the boat and holding up 20 Yuan notes), past fishermen going about their work, and tourists being ferried on bamboo rafts powered by electric engines, catching a view of our hotel on the river bank, before arriving at the pier.

It was about a 15 minute walk to our hotel, but too far with heavy bags so we looked for a taxi and ended up with 3 motorcycles to transport us up the road – 1 each for us to ride pillion with young Chinese ladies, the 3rd for a guy to bring our bags. It was worth every penny of the £4.50, for comedy value if nothing else.

Li River Resort was the only non-IHG hotel we’d booked in China, and that was only because the IHG option, a new Voco hotel in Yangshuo, was WAY too far out of our budget. Li River Resort was very highly rated on Tripadvisor and Agoda and was just a little bit over budget for a river view room. That was fine as our accommodation costs had been low overall in China due to a combination of free nights on IHG points and a fair few nights in cheapo Holiday Inn Expresses. What a fabulous place it was – family-run, right on the river and with a lovely big pool from where you could watch the boats passing by, fabulous personal service and decent food – the first place in ages where the staff actually knew who you were and which room you were in. We just relaxed for a couple of days, soaking up the beautiful landscape while attempting to deal with the ongoing saga of the flood at our house back home, before even bothering to make the mile or so walk along the river into Yangshuo town – which was big and touristy but not in a bad way.

As lovely as it was to sit on our balcony or by the pool and look across the river to the majestic karsts opposite (Steve joked that the bloody mountains were getting in the way of the view), we did feel that we should at least make an effort to see a bit more of the area.

Debbie had been chatting to a couple from Somerset in the pool, as she does, and they’d told her about a cycling tour they’d done in the nearby Yulong River valley. Our hotel offered a trip which included the cycling and bamboo rafting on the river, but it was pretty expensive and we didn’t really fancy sitting on a bamboo float, so we just took an inexpensive DiDi taxi ride to a bicycle rental place and hired a couple of bikes for less than £6 for the day. We had a lovely ride through the paddy fields and along the river, marvelling at the scenery which was just a spectacular as that of the Li River and watching the tourists float by on their rafts. Steve was fascinated by a water wheel, turned by the flow of the river and taking water up and over the bank to irrigate the rice paddies. On the way back to base the heavens opened and we returned the bikes looking like drowned rats!

An American lady, who lived in China, recommended a trip to Ruyi Peak – saying that the Chinese love their cable cars and you’ve not experienced China properly until you’ve taken one up a mountain. So another DiDi ride took us the 10 miles or so to the visitor centre where we found that our oldie was entitled to a half price ticket. A 2Km (15 minute) cable car journey took us up through karst peaks and offered stunning panoramic views before arriving at the entrance to the mountain complex. First up was the Ruyi cable bridge, a 142m long and 2m wide suspension bridge between 2 karsts, hanging 60m above the valley floor, with blessed ribbons tied to its railings. According to t’internet, crossing the bridge provides an exhilarating thrill and iconic photo opportunities. Debbie begged to differ on the first point, found it rather scary and got across and off as quickly as possible. Steve was happier to hang around for photos! Up a couple of hundred steps we reached the peak and were rewarded with even more magnificent views – it was just a shame that it was quite cloudy as the photos don’t show just how fabulous the landscape really is. We knew that there was a glass walkway and were a bit disappointed that it was only partly glass and mainly metal grating, but then we discovered that that this wasn’t THE main attraction and that was still to come. The Glass Skywalk was actually an utterly terrifying 138m long, 1.8m wide, totally transparent glass path set against the steep cliff-face of Necklace Peak. Madness but we made it – Steve videoed the whole thing, Debbie didn’t look down! It’s bizarre given that Debbie is usually the brave one, having done both bungy and parachute jumps, that she was so uncomfortable on the bridge and glass pathway but she figured that it was due to the lack of control and she was really concerned about how that glass path was secured to the mountain.

Debbie did a lot of chatting in the hotel pool and was delighted to hear a Scouse accent – a teacher from Liverpool who was living in China, had her family visiting and they’d come to Yangshuo for the weekend. They recommended the Impression Liu Sanjie light show so we booked tickets and a transfer for that evening through our hotel. An hour before the open air spectacle was due to start, a thunderstorm with torrential rain was raging in Yangshuo, but as it was forecast to be over by the 8pm start time the show was going ahead. Our dinner took too long to arrive and we were running late, but our driver got us to our seats dead on 8pm, just as the first performer came into view. We’d opted for the cheap seats and were in the front row, wearing the plastic ponchos we’d been given on arrival and with brollies covering our knees. The best seats were at the back, higher up for a better view, and under cover – but were £80 each and we weren’t feeling that flash. The show was directed by the acclaimed film-maker Zhang Yimou, the guy who created the Beijing Olympics opening & closing ceremonies, and features over 600 performers on rafts on the Li River, with the surrounding karsts lit up and providing a spectacular natural amphitheatre and stage. We didn’t have the foggiest what was going on but it was a pleasure to watch, especially when the rain finally stopped.

And all too soon our relaxing 5 day break in Yangshuo came to an end and we took a 32Km taxi ride to the misleadingly named Yangshuo station for our journey to Hong Kong vis Shenzhen. It’d been nerve-wracking getting tickets as soon as they’d gone on sale 14 days previously (sold out within 3 minutes), as this was a very popular route with only 3 trains/day, but Debbie had managed to secure tickets for the 3 hour journey, but in a totally full and very noisy 2nd class compartment. So that’s it for mainland China, and onwards across the border to SAR (Special Administrative Region) Hong Kong……