I often think back to more “innocent” times, such as when I used to travel in China. Several years ago when I was working in Hong Kong, I decided to go to Guangxi for Christmas. Guangxi’s karst mountains and rivers are some of China’s most famous and beautiful landscapes, and being right next to Guangdong, Guangxi was not far from Hong Kong. And the launch of a new high-speed train line made going to Guangxi much faster than before.

My first stop was Xingping, a small village on the Li River between Guilin and Yangshuo that also is where Yangshuo high-speed station was located. Xingping is not as well-known as those two places, but years earlier, I had come across an amazing photo of Guangxi and it was taken in Xingping. It was a welcome coincidence that a high-speed train station was built there. I arrived at night, found my hotel and checked in.

Being located right along the river and overlooked by several distinct karst peaks looming nearby, Xingping features fantastic scenery and is also a good staging point for boat rides or treks to other villages along the river. Not surprisingly, there was construction going on, no doubt intended to cope with a potential tourist boom. Like most Chinese cities and towns, the village even had an old pedestrian street that had been spruced up for visitors, but I found it underwhelming.

The next day, I found that the weather was horrible due to thick fog that was likely smog (yes, even in the countryside). I still decided to walk along the Li River to the location that is featured on China’s 20 yuan bill, about 15-20 minutes from Xingping.

I walked back into Xingping and decided to trek to another village, the even smaller Yucun (Fish Village) to the south that had some very old buildings. Its biggest claim to fame was that it had been visited by Bill Clinton, as well as Hillary and Chelsea, during his state visit to China in 1998. Following directions from my hotel, I walked out of the village into the mountains behind it.

I passed through a valley, briefly got lost at a fork, and had to backtrack a bit before finally seeing the river appear below me after two hours of trekking. I followed a road down to the river, where Yucun was located. As a secluded settlement that could only be reached by boat or on foot, Yucun was built in the 16th century, giving it over 500 years of history. When I arrived in the village, I was met by a local woman, who then nicely gave me a tour of the old houses in the village center, which featured some elegant wooden carvings as well as some Mao posters.

Do you see Bill? And yes, that’s a photo of Sun Yat-sen, considered the father of modern China, on the left.

As I was in no mood to hike back to Xingping in foggy weather, the woman’s husband took me back by boat (which I paid for). Going down the Li River on a flat-bottom bamboo raft, albeit with a motor, was a thrilling experience, though when we got near Xingping, the boatman told me to lay low otherwise he would have to pay a fee for carrying a tourist on board.

The next day was my last in Xingping and I hiked up Laozhai Hill, which overlooks the village and river. While over 300 meters, the hill is actually quite steep in some parts, but once on top, the views are splendid. After I came back down, I checked out of my hotel and took a bus to Yangshuo, the larger and more well-known travel hub of Guangxi.