Bicycle Tour - Southern China

Itinerary

With my brother Marc, we flew into Hong Kong, and after riding down Nathan Road (the main drag in Hong Kong), which was quite an experience, we got to the China Ferries Terminal. We took a boat up the Xun Jiang River (nine hours) to the town of WuzHou. We then rode over seven days via Gulong, Chentang, Mengshan, Lipu, Yangshuo and Guilin. Map: Wuzhou to Mengshan and Map: Mengshan to Guilin
Me in Wuzhou, looking energetic (we hadn't gone anywhere yet...!)

At that point my brother headed back to Yangshuo, and I headed north to Longsheng, Map: Guilin and Longsheng and Dragon Terraces, and then caught a bus back to Guilin, and then by sleeper bus to Shenzen, then by train to Hong Kong. I did a total of about 500 kilometers.

Dragon Rice terraces 800 years old and rising 500 metres from the valley floor
The long uphill road to Long Ji Terrace (click on the thumbnails for a bigger picture)

The Terrain roads, and weather

At lot of China is hilly, and this was no exception. The hills are not exceptionally high (1800 metres is as high as I got), but they are just about always there. The roads are not steep, designed for slow moving traffic and bicycles. Most roads are paved, but some are rough dirt roads. The Chinese drivers are very good to bicycle riders,  contrary to most western countries were you are just about run off the road. Weather (in May) was warm 25C-35C humid, and rained about a third of the time.

Accommodation

We stayed in hotels, some were pretty basic but very cheap ($US3 a night). I did camp one night, although its hard to find campsites, and I don't think the local police would approve of camping, However its possible to do, and in the more remote areas I think it would be easier.

People

Chinese people are incredibly friendly. I think because we went well away from the tourist areas (we didn't see any westerners for seven days), we were a real item of interest in the little Chinese villages, we often got surrounded by children.

Food and Water

Food is always a big issue with bike riders!. There is very little western food. We drank bottled or boiled water. I managed to get oats in a couple of larger towns (I love my porridge in the morning...!), but a lot of other western food is unobtainable except in really large places (e.g. cereal, bread, museli/granola bars, edible chocolate..). The little Chinese restaurants (very little), made some great meals, and it was very cheap.

	The sleeper bus I took for twenty hours from Guilin to Shenzen