The good, bad and ugly sides to a holiday in Yangshuo, in southwest China’s karst country

THE GOOD
You can tell that a sightseeing destination has hit the big time when it appears on a banknote. The Li River and soaring karst scenery around Yangshuo feature on the 20 yuan bill, along with the Great Helmsman himself, Mao Zedong.

Offices, boardrooms and embassies across China give pride of place to paintings of the cloud-shrouded peaks that have been eulogised by poets and politicians.

When Bill Clinton visited this part of the Guangxi auto­nomous region in 1998, he observed that “nowhere is like Guilin”. Evidently the then United States president was unaware of the saying, “Guilin has the best scenery under the heaven, but Yangshuo is even more beautiful.”

A generation ago, while domestic tour groups were making a beeline for Guilin, foreign backpackers were finding their way 90km down river, to a sleepy settlement where the only high rises were natural and covered in vegetation.

A handful of modest lodges catered for the first wave of independent travellers. Cafes began serving up banana pancakes and chocolate brownies, sales of locally brewed Liquan beer spiked and bicycle hire shops started springing up.

Fast forward a quarter of a century and cycling through the rice fields is still one of the most rewarding ways to spend a day in northeast Guangxi.