Why the Yulong rather than the Li
Everyone takes the Li. It is magnificent and it is enormous - a hundred-tonne cruise boat, an engine, a buffet, a hundred and twenty kilometres of river. The Yulong is the opposite in every respect. It is the longest tributary of the Li inside Yangshuo county: 43.5 kilometres long, draining 158 square kilometres, running through five townships and more than twenty villages, and it is known locally as the little Li. There are no powered boats on it at all. Every raft is poled by hand.
The stretch that matters is the 15.4 kilometres between Yulong Bridge and Gongnong Bridge, and it drops through twenty-eight low weirs. The water is clear enough to see the bottom for most of it, and because the rafts move at walking pace and mostly at the pace of whoever is poling, the river has none of the surge and noise of a cruise. If the Li is the grand house, the people here say, the Yulong is the girl next door - and the saying 'Yangshuo's scenery beats Guilin's' is mostly about this river.
Morning - the raft
We take a bamboo raft on one of the middle or lower sections, which is what most people want: the full length from Golden Dragon Bridge would take five hours in the dry season, and the segments above and below Ji Ma are each around two hours. Your guide arranges the section and the timing, and raft capacity and the rules on who may travel - children, older guests and anyone with a heart condition are excluded - are set by the operators. Lifejackets are worn throughout and the rafts do not carry much luggage, so leave bags in the vehicle.
Lunch
Lunch in Yangshuo or at one of the riverside villages, on the early side.
Afternoon - the Ten-Mile Gallery by bicycle
The lane running south from Yangshuo is known as the Ten-Mile Gallery, and although it is only about ten kilometres long it passes most of what the county has: karst towers on both sides, farm plots between them, the old banyan, the caves and the small villages. A bicycle is the correct way to do it and everyone who has tried both knows why - a car covers the distance in fifteen minutes and shows you none of it.
The ride is flat, on tarmac and concrete farm lanes, and we can shorten or lengthen it. It finishes at Moon Hill, which is a limestone arch rather than a hill: a peak with a crescent-shaped hole right through the top of it, and the reason it is worth the stop is that the hole changes shape as you move - from a full circle to a thin crescent - so that the mountain appears to go through its phases. The climb to the arch is a staircase, and it is optional.
We ride back into Yangshuo in the late afternoon. This is the least demanding day we run in Guangxi and, for a lot of guests, the one they remember.
Meals
Lunch
Accommodation
Day programme - no hotel night included.
