We've never been big city people, so it came as no surprise to us that the first half of our time in China was a little tiring. We were really looking forward to our time in the Guangxi province, where we hoped to find more of a countryside feel. Guilin is much smaller than Beijing but is still a sizeable city, so we didn't waste any time getting out to Yangshuo.

While Yangshuo is also a fairly big town, it's perfectly situated to escape it all, so we rented some good mountain bikes and set off on our own personal adventure. We loved having the freedom to go where we wanted, stop where we wanted, and stay as long as we wanted! We rode through some gorgeous scenery and some great little rural villages. We probably took more pictures during our time in Guangxi province than we did in the rest of China combined!

And what's an adventure without some mishaps? My favorite was when Jeff rode on fresh wet cement! Oops! There was no way to go around this section, so the local farmers sent us through their fields instead. Of course, fields aren't meant for riding, so we walked along tiny narrow ledges between plots and tried to avoid as much vegetation as possible. Forty-five minutes later, with our socks full of burrs, we found the road again!

Even when we managed to stay on actual roads, we still got lost more times than I can count. To say that China maps could use some improvement is putting it mildly! Sometimes we ended up where we wanted to be by accident, and other times we relied on helpful locals. I laughed when a couple times somebody would see us coming and tell us our destination was in the opposite direction without us even asking. Obviously we're not the only people to have taken a few wrong turns!

After our Yangshuo adventures, we took a bus up the river to Xingping. This 1700 year old city sells itself as China's "countryside," so you can imagine our dismay when on arrival we were greeted with noisy traffic and modern buildings covered with scaffolding! Thankfully, the old town is just a 10 minute walk away. After checking into our hostel, we decided to pretend that the modern city didn't exist and blissfully hid out for 3 days in the tiny cobbled streets of old Xingping. The only time we left our little ancient bubble was to float along the beautifully scenic Li River on an old bamboo raft. It was the perfect way to end our time in China!