China Day 7: Mountain Biking in Yangshuo

When you take a trip, you're always hoping for at least one transcendant moment - that instance in which you realize why you had to go on the journey to begin with.

Today was that moment.

It started innocently enough. We walked over to the local mountain bike rental place to inquire about rates and routes through the local countryside. At first, the idea was that we'd just take the bikes for a spin, get acquainted to biking. Somehow we ended up on a five hour, fourteen mile bike ride through some of the most stunning landscapes I've ever seen.

That's my friend Brian walking his bike because the rest of us were stupid enough to cross that bridge on our bikes. He asked me, "Is this bike ride Hayao Miyazaki enough for you?" If you know who that is, then you know what he's talking about.

Anyway, we rolled through rice paddies, small villages, rocky paths. Past water buffalo, startling flocks of ducks (they'd waddle away and honk at us), trailed by tiny Chinese children yelling at the top of their lungs, "Hello! Hello! Hello!" (they'd run away and laugh every time we pulled out our cameras). Meanwhile, elderly Chinese people smoking cigarettes cycled laps around us, as we struggled to complete the trail along the Dragon river.

We kept crossing paths with one particular gentlemen, who would offer helpful directions, and then bike away, only to cross our paths at another critical junction. He eventually just led us to the bridge over the Dragon river, and finally, showing his hand, attempted to sell us a bamboo raft trip down the river.

I often had to focus on the rocks in my path in order to prevent a fall, but every time I looked up, I saw something stunningly beautiful. Quite possibly the favorite bike ride of my life.