Thanks for your interest in joining us on this unique hosted tour to the lesser explored regions of China. As a former Tour Leader for Intrepid Travel, China used to be my stomping grounds. Nowadays, I hanker for any opportunity to return and share my favourite places in China with whoever would like to join! I have hosted dozens of tours over my life and absolutely love doing it — it was and still is my favourite job in the entire world. Nowadays I consider myself a ‘freelance tour guide’ and don’t organise these tours to make money, but to make sure that yearly travel with good friends is still a part of my life.

So without further ado, here is the rough plan for first week of the trip. We have decided to go ahead with a September plan and I am setting it up as two overlapping trips (from here on out known as ‘laid-back’ and ‘hardcore’).

The first ‘laid-back’ trip will take in more of the classic tourist sites of Yangshuo and Yunnan and end with a trek in Yunnan Tibet. The second ‘hard-core’ trip will be geared towards my more adventurous friends and contacts who want to ‘rough it’ as much as possible and see some of the best Yunnan province has to offer. To make bookings as easy as possible for me, I would prefer it if people signed up for either of the two trips, or both.

Week 1 – Yangshuo – First week of September

Yangshuo. It is a backpackers mecca but also home to the Chinese version of the limestone karst scenery also seen in Thailand and Vietnam. The only difference is that in this region, the karsts are surrounded by lush, green, fertile rice fields everywhere you look. And there are lots and LOTS of Chinese farmers!

Yangshuo will be the joining point of the tour and you can easily get here directly from Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur or Beijing. (you can fly to Guilin and transfer to Yangshuo by private vehicle (a 1.5 hour ride).

The best activity here is to cycle amongst these karsts and throughout the countryside surrounding Yangshuo. We will stop in at the houses of my old friends and taste some of the freshest food China has to offer — straight from the paddy to the plate. Better yet, we’ll do it all on bicycles! So you will get plenty of exercise to work off all the good food and get you ready for the trekking later in the trip.

Chengyang

After a three days trying to enjoy everything you can in Yangshuo, I would like to take the group up to two more spectacular destinations in Yunnan. The first is the village of Chengyang, home to several Dong Minority villages nestled in the mountainous countryside of northern Guangxi Province. After a relatively comfortable first few days in Yangshuo, we will be roughing it a bit more up in these mountains and facilities will be more basic but definitely not uncomfortable. There will also be a few glasses of locally made rice wine around so watch yourself!

In Chengyang there are opportunities to walk in the surrounding hilly countryside with a local guide, who will take us into the rice paddies and to neighbouring villages. Once again, Chengyang is fairly remote but not totally off the tourist map; while walking we will hardly see any other tourists and you’ll have plenty of opportunities to photography the gorgeous hills.

Coming soon

In the next few days I will take the time to write up Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 of this tour, one for every week that we hope to be travelling in September. Keep your eyes peeled for more.. and of course, feel free to share this link with friends who might be interested.

In summary here is the plan so far:

Day 1 – Meet in Yangshuo
Day 2-3 – Cycle Trip and Cooking School, spare day for optional activities
Day 4-5 – Transfer to Chengyang, day hike
Day 6-7 – Transfer to Longji, day hikes
Day 8 – Transfer to Guilin for flight/train to Kunming