On to Yangshuo

Then our marathon bike ride adventure began! We cycled 60km from Guilin to a little town called Xing Ping on the Li River. We started early and stopped in a village for some rice noodles for breakfast which were delicious. The scenery was fantastic, especially when we were out of the towns and cycling between the Kaarst Peaks. However, this also meant a huge hill, which Amy somehow managed to go up in third gear and wondered why it was so hard...oh dear. We both made it though, which is more than I can say for our guide who hitched a ride in the car!! We went through lots of small farming villages and it was a great way to see the "real" China. The road wasn't at all busy, though we did run into a herd of goats and a few buffalo which the villagers use to plough their fields ready for the rice. The fact that no other tourists do this route made it even more special (most are not crazy enough to cycle 60km and instead choose a leisurely cruise down the river to Yangshuo...so lazy). In Xing Ping, we went to the spot where the image on the 20 yuan note comes from, which was rather cool. We stayed in a really nice hostel and made our first friend in China! She was equally excited to see us and we stayed up late talking. It was nice to meet someone new our age who spoke English, a rarity in China where nearly all tourists are Chinese.
Today, we had some delicious vegetable noodle soup for breakfast with our new friend, before getting back on our bikes. This was a rather painful experience to say the least. Fortunately the ride today was only about 20 km and mostly flat. All the villagers were out in the fields, very busy getting ready for the rainy season when they grow the rice. We just thought we would mention that we also saw a lot of puppies around the streets, though not many dogs. We found out why when we were offered dog meat with our noodles at lunch...We opted for beans and pork! These noodles were by far the best noodles we have ever had. MMM! After lunch, we took a bamboo raft up the river to a little village called Liugong. There were no other tourists there which was lovely and we enjoyed just wandering along the narrow streets seeing how the villagers live. They were all really friendly, especially the children who would shout "hallooo" when they saw us! We cycled the last 3 km to Yangshuo where we are staying for the next 2 nights. The town is a haven for backpackers and has a very relaxed feel to it. We like it here :) We found a cute little cafe for dinner where we had some yummy fried rice with chicken, and cheesecake for pudding!!
We seem to have given the wrong idea about the food on the blog! We just wanted to stress the fact that the food here is actually very good. So far our favourites have to be the bean noodles we had today, chinese cabbage, soy beans, dumplings, duck, beans with pork and I like the tea!