Another great journey is the struggle upriver against the current. Beneath walls of peaks, bamboo and heavily foliaged trees sway in the breeze as buffaloes graze just above the water's edge. Bamboo rafts lie on the grass at shallow bays where the river bends have become home to small settlements. Life seems all around. Boats are lined up alongside the banks, tied to simple bamboo poles stuck in the mud. Often just planks of wood from the muddy shore lead up to the boats. Cargoes of rice or vegetables are being loaded for the trip to larger river towns. Everything including bicycles seems brought on board by peasants wearing circular straw hats.

One journey to be repeated several times is from the pleasant upriver village of Xingping. Cafés and restaurants near the landing stage make a visit there a pleasant experience, but the real interest lies along the road back to Yangshuo.

On Xingping's main street rice is frequently spread out to dry. Peasants will then scoop up the grains and store them in sacks for shipment to market.

Along the valley beyond the settlement rice is intensively cultivated in the lower fields. Beyond, groves of sugarcane lead to the steeper slopes reserved for grazing or left under trees and scrub bushes.

 A Land Dominated by Rice

The entire route seems dominated by rice - ploughing, transplanting and harvesting. Hard work has produced this landscape. There seems endless human activity in the fields; indeed it is a 'people-centred' landscape. Most equipment employed is what I would call 'intermediate technology', with little in the way of mechanisation.

Earthen banks protect the fields from flooding by the brown water of adjacent streams. However, water is introduced to the soil to soften it up before planting.

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