The fishermen of Xingping had engaged in the cormorant in their fishing practices for centuries. This very special practice has drawn many interested tourists and I was keen to see it when I went to Xingping.

There are two options in terms of boat rides on the Li River in Xingping. For the more “traditional,” or “authentic” experience, you could hire a bamboo raft (I highly doubt that they are still made of bamboo now, I saw rubber-made rafts mostly). This would cost RMB 120 yuan and it does not take you to the upstream, where you would see the Yellow Cloth Shoal. Instead, this route takes you downstream.

I joined the boat tour at 3pm. This standard boat tour cost RMB 85 yuan, and took the group upstream to experience the Li River in this part of Guilin. The only regret is that this day and the following day (when I do my sunrise tour at Xianggong Shan) would be way overcast.

As with the Li River boat tour at Yangshuo, we were seated in the boat, offered local snacks and then after a bit of sailing we could go up to the deck to view the scenery. The first point of interest was a show of the cormorant by the local fisherman, what I looked forward to the most on this trip and unique to Xingping.

The Cormorants and their Fishing Past

Cormorant fishing had been a technique engaged by the fishermen of China and Japan for thousands of years. In China, there were records of this fishing technique as early as the Sui dynasty in 636 BC.

According to the Wikipedia, this following is how the fishermen controlled the cormorant when they fish:

To control the birds, the fishermen tie a loose snare near the base of the bird’s throat. The snare does not stop the bird from swallowing small fish, but prevents the bird from swallowing larger fish, which are held temporarily in their gullet. When a cormorant has caught a fish in its throat, the fisherman brings the bird back to the boat and has it regurgitate the fish. (Wikipedia on Cormorant Fishing)

It takes no imagination to see that this type of traditional fishing technique pales in comparison to modern techniques in terms of efficiency. As such, cormorant fishing only serves the purpose of tourism these days. I had not confirmed this on the boat tour, but it did look to me that the fisherman we saw on board the boat was merely using his cormorant as a prop for tourists to take photographs with.

The Cormorant – A Show for the Tourists

The fisherman rowed on his bamboo raft and boarded our tourist boat. He brought a large cormorant with him, his prized possession for livelihood. The rule of payment goes like this: there is no fee for taking photographs of the fisherman and the bird. But if you take a photograph with the fisherman and the cormorant, then there is a charge of RMB 5 yuan.

There was an orderly way to proceed and each row of the tourists would take turns to admire the fishman and his handy companion. I was seated in the front row and so I was very fortunate that I could see the fisherman rowing his bamboo raft and boarding the boat.

The bird was large with a very sharp and pointed beak. To prevent it from pecking tourists, the fisherman has fixed a little plastic tube stopper on his beak. No, there was no actual demonstration of the fishing technique on this tour boat. However, I do believe that is an option if you join a tour specifically to see the actual fishing with the cormorant, in an early sunrise tour of the river. This option is not cheap, and I had not looked into that myself.

The children were particularly intrigued by the big bird and we took some time for everybody to have a chance for photo taking. The fisherman left the boat and we went on to the next segment of the boat tour, the Yellow Cloth Shoal is coming up.

Sources

The Wikipedia on Cormorant Fishing.

I did not get to try the beer fish in Huangyao and so I was very keen to try it in Yangshuo. Indeed, when I just arrived in Yangshuo, I saw all these restaurants claiming to be beer fish specialists. That would be my dinner option for the only day I stayed in Yangshuo.

The boat ride of Lijiang went for 1.5 hours and when it was done, I went back to the hotel to rest a little. The restaurant of the Riverview Hotel is very crowded at all times, therefore it was no doubt for me that I would be having my beer fish there. For hotel customers, the restaurant offers a discount set menu of beer fish. Surely this menu would be too much food for me, but I could not resist and pre-ordered this set menu for the night.

At around 6:30 I went down to the restaurant and it was a full house. They did suggest that maybe I could have my meal in my own hotel room, but eventually we all decided against that suggestion because they did not want my hotel room to turn up a mess from a hot pot dinner either. They managed to get me a very spacious table.

The set menu came with a stuffed conch and a beer fish. The beer fish is a hotpot style dish. The whole fish is served in a delightful broth with all sorts of herbs and spices, tomatoes, bell peppers and some other ingredients. Just these two dishes would be too much for me, but I took my time to eat. I also told them to take back some of the extra ingredients, including noodles and tofu that were served on the side, so that I could just focus on what was already in the hot pot.

The stuffed shellfish required quite a bit of work both in its preparation and in its eating. The meat of the conch was first removed from the shells. Then they were diced up into small cubes and mixed with marinated ground pork, and re-stuffed into the shells and cooked in a light broth. The dish was very flavorful, but eating it also requires one to use a small fork to remove the stuffing inside the shells. This turned out to be a good idea, as in this way I must only proceed slowly through the food.

The beer fish was wonderful. I could taste the litsea, an ingredient that is common in this part of China but not in Hong Kong. I had litsea coffee earlier in the day and its flavor was even more pronounced in the fish broth. The litsea is a little spicy but the flavors are more full-bodied and rounded, and certainly not as sharp as ginger. You also could not miss the very concentrated tomato in the broth. I worked through the whole hot pot slowly, and did manage to finish most of the fish, to my satisfaction.

After having such a scrumptious meal, I decided that a walk in the ancient town was necessary.

Yangshuo Ancient Town at Night

Yangshuo might have had the longest history out of the three ancient towns that I visited in this Guilin trip. It was on the maps of administration of the government during the Qin kingdom times.

Like Huangyao, Yangshuo is itself an ancient town, but it has always positioned itself as a town that favors and caters to foreigners for decades since the 1980s. As such Huangyao and Yangshuo were distinctly different. I was nearly shocked when I walked into Yangshuo town proper at night, as I surely found myself amidst a huge party. Bars were all open for business, each competing against each other in every aspect, including the loudness of their music, the brightness of their neon light decorations, and the ever-colorful signs luring tourists to go in for a drink. You cannot miss the heartbeat of Yangshuo: it was upbeat, boisterous, and a different animal at night—as compared to the slightly sleepy and much calmer countenance that I observed during the late morning when I arrived that day.

I also had not anticipated the whole town to be of such enormous size. It took me more than one hour just to do one rushed walk-around. There were a million beer fish establishments and two million bars and cafes. There were also countless stalls selling all kinds of curios, and they were not necessarily catered to tourist interests either.

All kinds of street foods were available, from hot to cold, from sweet to savory. It felt like a party there, and I was not sure if it was my cup of tea at this age of mine. Huangyao was relaxed, calm, and certainly tamed. In great contrast, Yangshuo was a blossoming twenty-year-old having the best time of its party life.

There were the same features of ancient towns that I liked both in Yangshuo and Huangyao: some body of water that runs through the town, with antique bridges crossing over; the existence of old blue brick buildings; stone-laid paths for walking; and the revitalization efforts that make the ancient towns clean, walkable and pleasant. All these were present both in Yangshuo and Huangyao, but there was something about the way that Yangshuo presented itself that was irksome to me. I am certainly not against the idea of commercialization, because people have got to find a means for livelihood. There was commercialization in Huangyao and I thought it was well done.

Rather, Yangshuo annoyed me in the sense that there was too much effort to dress the town up in touristy gimmicks. The body of water that ran throughout Yangshuo had a laser show with loud party music; there were led and neon lighting everywhere, the town was so over-lit that even the full contours of the mountain peaks in the backdrop were fully seen. The town made many pretentious efforts in the name of attracting tourism, with spots decorated exclusively for instagrammable photo taking.

Some of these spots were heritage sites. The presence of big corporates was overwhelming, and perhaps not surprisingly that Starbucks took over a whole heritage building to serve its coffee.

This is not just commercialization. Yangshuo as it is now lies very remote from its original character being an ancient town. Despite the West Street being thousands of years old, it is now founded upon pure profit-driven intentions. Its being an ancient town is purely a claim to attract tourists, its essence has nothing to do even with its own history now.

As I had had enough of the party atmosphere in Yangshuo, I took one long look at the karst peak clusters that hover over this bright spot of hedonism—for these peaks are the only presence of authenticity there. As I sighed through my return journey, I came back to the quiet, tucked-away Riverview Hotel, just happy that I had not booked a hotel close to town.

I arrived at Huangyao in the late afternoon and I had not had any food since a very early breakfast. I decided to have a bowl of Guilin Mifen (rice noodles) before I did more touring of the ancient town.

Photo: The West Gate of Huangyao, outside of which I found the Guilin mifen bowl noodles.

The First Bowl of Guilin Mifen

It did not seem to me that the restaurants were open inside the ancient town, so I exited through the West Gate and hunted for food outside of the ancient town. Right across the street from the West Gate there were some small establishments open. I was going to try a popular one, where some patrons were already sitting, but I noticed the one next door was cleaner. I then picked that one.

And make no mistake, this would be the very best Guilin mifen (rice noodles) that I had throughout all of this trip. What a pleasant surprise!

The noodles were very chewy. There were small pieces of pork, which were tender and flavorful. Then there was an unlimited refill of condiments: spring onions, pickled vegetables, garlic crisps and roasted peanuts. I also added some vinegar, and the food was a bowl of delight, with a wonderful mixture of complex textures. For all of the Guilin mifen that I had after this, there was not one bowl that had chewy noodles. I guess the standard mifen was simply soft and smooth.

I felt incredible satisfied, as I also had a serving of dumplings, which were not bad either. With this I went back into the ancient town to see more of its antiquity.

The Specialty Product of Huangyao Ancient Town

Despite it being a pretty developed town with commerce and a civilized lifestyle, Huangyao is still rural in character. The most well-known product of Huangyao is fermented black beans. Its black beans come with a wide variation of different types. The most common kind was the plain fermented black beans, where you would have to add your own seasoning and marinate to go along with meats. They are in dry, sealed packages. Then there are the pre-marinated kind, with other strongly-flavored ingredients, such as red chilli or soy sauce. For those, you would just dish out the black beans to serve as a flavor-booster along with a plain noodle.

Milky Can Drinks 

When I was strolling in the ancient town, I came across a store selling milky can drinks. This drink acquires its name for its being cooked on “cans,” over an open fire stove. I ordered the rose tea, and it came with rose petals, dried longan, osmanthus fragrans, dried red dates, goji berries and some other dried herbs and flowers. The mixture sat on the stove for a good ten minutes to draw out all the fragrances. Served piping hot this potion of delight kept me warm for the rest of my sightseeing.

Steamed Spareribs with Huangyao’s Specialty Fermented Black Beans

When I have made a round throughout Huangyao, the night had befallen. I figured that it was time for dinner. I found Tingtao Fandian, a restaurant with outdoor seating by the Yaojiang creek. It has the beautiful name meaning “hearing waves.”

Photo: At the restaurant, I sat by the creek and savored this view of Huangyao as I had my dinner.

Unfortunately, they did not serve the other famous dish of Guilin, which is the beer fish pot. I then ordered the next thing on my list – steamed spareribs with fermented black beans. Since I was in Huangyao after all, I should have the ancient town’s specialty.

The plate of steamed spareribs came in a generous portion, and the seasoning of the fish was done just right. Steaming the spareribs preserves the natural juiciness of the meat, and the fermented black beans really accentuated the savouriness of the dish.

I had to eat very slowly because frankly half of that big bowl of Guilin mifen that I had just two hours prior was still keeping me full. As I was eating at a leisurely pace there were fireworks. I was impressed – it clearly was low season but the ancient town put up fireworks. I was very happy with my dining experiences in Huangyao. But I was too full.

After dinner, I walked again around the Main Street area, and the night lit shops certainly gave out a different vibe. It was beautiful and peaceful to walk in Huangyao at night.

The bus to Yangshuo would be passing by Qianxing Square the next morning at 8:40am. It’s the only bus to Yangshuo, running once daily. I decided to head back to the Dayuan Cultural Theme Hostel and rest for the night.