With that arranged, I wanted as much as possible from my remaining time in Yangshuo. It was suggested by the manager of my adopted cafe on West Street I should go by boat to Xingping, a small town 27 kilometers upriver and cycle back down.

“Yes”, I thought, “let’s go for it!”

After a leisurely breakfast I cycled down to the riverside wharf, my bicycle lifted up onto a low-lying wooden vessel. Sitting outside at the bow as we ploughed upstream, I chatted with a fellow European traveler. Our conversation inevitably focused on how much we enjoyed the “Yangshuo lifestyle” compared to our perception of the daily work ritual waiting back home. Travel in a place such as Yangshuo so easily blotted out life’s realities. A dream world, maybe? Or a sub-tropical Shangri-La?