Yangshuo bike ride to Moon Hill

The next day we are all going for a bike ride into the nearby countryside to a place called Moon Hill. We pick up our bicycles in town and while we are waiting for everyone to get their bikes we watch the local town street cleaners having a presentation and motivational talk – ‘street cleaner of the week’ or some such thing.

Street cleaners’ presentation

Here we are getting ready to cycle

It’s pretty busy on the roads to begin with as we cycle through the town, but we are soon on smaller country roads that wind through the fields and villages. It is great to feel a little closer to the lives of the people and the countryside. I always appreciate it more when I am putting some physical effort in myself to see it and I am not separated from it by the glass of a bus or train.

Here is the farmland we cycled through

We stop for a rest by the river and take some pictures.

Me by the river

While we are doing this an old woman comes out of her house nearby. She has some flower garlands that she has made and wants to sell them to us. Elliot buys one, and she is happy for us to take some pictures of her.

Flower seller

As we continue the ride we realise this is a theme of the area. Someone tries to take a picture of a water buffalo and a local man shouts that he wants money for the photograph. Around a corner a collection of old people appear to be performing some rustic task for irrigating a field, but this is purely staged and when we stop to look they also ask for money. When we don’t photograph them they come at us with hand-painted wooden ducks and bamboo back scratchers for sale - nothing that is really useful on a bike ride.

As we reach the foot of Moon Hill a group of women watch us approach. We cycle into the car park and park our bikes and they get up and run along, one beside each bicycle. They are carrying insulated containers and they each attach themselves to every one of our group, determined to accompany us up the several hundred stone steps to the top of the hill and back and sell us cold drinks or postcards at the top when we are hot and tired and feeling guilty about their efforts. They all speak enough English to tell us they are poor farmers and they try hard to engage us in conversation and fan us with bamboo leaf fans to keep us cool. Some of them are seriously old and bent, but they trot up the steps gamely. They must do this many times a day in the hope of selling the occasional can of coke.

Moon Hill

At the top of Moon Hill