Yangshuo: rock climbing mecca?

"Why don't we go rock climbing?", my friend Tim said. I must admit I wasn't too fond of the idea, especially after hearing the 180rmb price for a half day of climbing. But we visited a few climbing stores (we counted at least 4) and the photos they had looked pretty cool so we decided to do it on our last day in Yangshuo before heading to Guilin.

We left 'early' in the morning at 930am. We decided to go with Xclimber because they seemed to be the most interested in taking us beginners out. Knowing safety standards as I do in China, dangerous activities (crossing the street notwithstanding) should best be avoided. The storefront had lots of info and equipment and they had plaques on the wall from all these various rock climbing associations. Not that this facade can't be faked but it seemed to ease my doubts a little. I was able to bargain a 930am-1:30pm half day rock climbing session for 120rmb.


We took a short ride out to a karst face and our guide, Alex, proceeded to climb up the razor sharp limestone rock face without the aid of a harness to set up two routes for us. Boy, he sure made it look easy. I've done indoor rock wall climbing before and didn't find it too difficult or scary but when you're out there on a real rock facing sharp limestone 30-40 metres in the sky, it's a whole different ball game.



Our guide, Alex, made it look easy but it really isn't.


As the day progressed, more and more climbers came. It turns out that Yangshuo is a rock climbing mecca in China; there are quite a number of routes of all shapes, sizes and difficulty in Yangshuo and it draws climbers from all over the region: Hong Kong, Guangzhou and as far away as Beijing.


I must say that rock climbing really isn't that interesting to me but it was a nice workout for the legs and arms I am glad that I experienced it and got some nice photos out of the day. I highly recommend it when visiting Yangshuo.