Magnificent Guilin — The Yellow Cloth Shoal at the Li River and Heritage in Xingping

Li River was always known and praised for its beauty. The Yellow Cloth Shoal, a scene of the karst peak clusters at the Li River, is featured on the RMB 20 yuan bank note. It brings the Li River to the fore of China’s national consciousness. This is a prime reason for a visit to Xingping for most of the local tourists in China.

The Yellow Cloth Shoal

As mentioned in the previous entry of Yangshuo’s Li River boat ride, there is a standard way that the Chinese people appreciate these karst peak clusters. It is no different in the Li River of Xingping. There is an endless list of names with which the Chinese people call these karst peaks. In Xingping the imagination was as rich as it was in Yangshuo. There were the Five Finger Mount, A Beauty Combing Hair, the Wealth Cat, the Year of Abundance, the Little Bunny, and Yuanbao (Ingot) Mount etc.

The day was overcast and it was disappointing, but there is a different kind of beauty on gloomy days.

The Yellow Cloth Shoal acquired its name due to a rocky riverbed. On clear days, boats coming close to that area of Li River will offer a view of a rocky segment of the riverbed that is in a light yellow, creamy color. It looks as if a yellow cloth has been lain on the riverbed. Therefore this area was named the “Yellow Cloth Beach.”

All the tourists on the boat became very excited when we approached the famous Yellow Cloth Shoal. This is the scenery that is featured on the RMB 20 yuan bank note.

After the boat ride, I took a walk around Xingping. I became very amused by the bustling movements by the riverbank. Workers after workers were offloading some yellow items and then loading them onto a truck on the roadside. Men and women carried these large and heavy things on their shoulders, shuttling back and forth between the boat and the truck. I finally figured that these heavy things were pomelos. As it turned out, this troop of workers would be working on pomelo transfer for the rest of the day, into the evening.

Back in Xingping Ancient Town, I sat down with coffee at the Ancient Theater Café.

Heritage in Xingping

Gu Xitai (Ancient Theater)

The Ancient Theater (also the Wusheng Temple) is perhaps the most prominent heritage building in the Xingping Ancient Town. It must have existed at the very earliest beginning of Xingping, for it claims to have 1,800 years of history.

It is free entry to see the Ancient Theater and a quick walkaround takes about 15 minutes or so.

The Gu Xitai Café

The Gu Xitai Café (Ancient Theater Café) lies right next to the Ancient Theater and it showcased some interesting drinks and food. I ordered a rice milk latte, and it was fantastic. There was quite a bit of natural sweetness in the rice milk, so there was certainly no need to put sugar in this coffee.

So far, I have been very impressed with the coffee in Guilin. The litsea coffee in Yangshuo and this rice milk coffee in Xingping were both excellent interpretation of coffeemaking with Chinese and Asian elements. This rice milk coffee was a little on the pricey side however.

The ambience of the Gu Xitai Café was wonderful, with a very small pond inside and lots of nice shade in its outside seating area. However, the Gu Xitai heritage site kept playing a tape looping warnings to tourists (to keep quiet and mind their steps) and that was a major nuisance as I was sipping my coffee.

The Bamboo Rice of Guilin

My dinner this evening did not consist of any particular Guilin specialty. I sat down at a restaurant presenting itself as a “farmers’ cuisine.” I just wanted garlic sparerib and vegetables. However, at the restaurant I observed the making of bamboo rice, and learned from the lady how one makes bamboo rice in Guilin. The rice (in Xingping, the rice used in bamboo rice is sticky rice) is stuffed into the bamboo tube and cooked in an open charcoal fire. The lady was stuffing corn cobs into the end of the bamboo tube. She explained that these corn cobs (with kernels removed) at the end of the tube keep the heat inside even and thorough, otherwise the rice inside could not be cooked properly.

Sources

Newton.com.tw on the Yellow Cloth Shoal (Chin).