My ride to Libo in south east Guizhou

Most likely you have not heard of Libo. I had never heard of Libo before I decided to cycle though south Guizhou. However, there are many little towns I had passed I had never heard of. At the time, it was already late November and it was cold. The plan was to cycle from Kunming to Guilin following the road to Shilin (Stone Forest), Xingyi and then through south Guizhou to Hechi, skipping Liuzhou but take a short cut through a forest area west of Guilin and further to Yangshuo where I planned to spend Christmas and New Years Eve.

There are few, if any tourist in south Guizhou. At best you may find a lost traveler in Dushan but that would only happen if the traveler had been lost or was crazy. South Guizhou has no specific tourist attractions and, as I found out, also no hidden attractions like I found on my journey from Xian to Chengdu, some weeks earlier.

On the way to Libo, Guizhou

This you could say this area was a white spot on the China map, ignored and forgotten and unfortunately not totally unjustified. I had enjoyed myself most of the time with the local population. Some told me they had never seen a foreigner passing their village which might be true. But as it usually is, the more remote you travel, the nicer the locals get. And that had been exactly what I had experienced.

On the way to Libo

Travelers do visit Guizhou, but mostly the north of the province. See my stories about Zhaoxing, and the roads in north Guizhou. Still, Libo lies in south east Guizhou and certainly not too far out of the way.

You can for example make an interesting loop from Guilin to Longsheng, Sanjiang and Zhaoxing, followed by Ronjiang. Instead of going north to either Liping (not really recommended) or Kaili and Guiyang, you could go south. It's a days cycling journey to Libo.

The road is in excellent condition after being upgraded some years ago. A few kilometers before Libo you can choose to continue west, to Dushan or south east. It's only a few kilometers from the junction.

Libo was a small town along a small river. At first glance it was not much different from any other Chinese town except that the surrounding looked very beautiful with hills around the town and town itself in the middle of the valley. I decided to stay a day and go around a little.

Libo turned out to be a city expecting tourism in the longer run. The town center was completely rebuild, street names were in English and there were a couple of very decent hotels.

Libo is located in a long stretching valley roughly in north south direction. There is a little road going south west out of the town that leads to Nandan, 67 km north west of Hechi. This road is supposedly in very bad condition. The people in town told me the road was bad. I had but one choice, go back and then head north as I originally had planned.

But my maps told there was another road. This road would lead me to Huanjiang, not far from Hechi. The Guizhou map and the Nelles map showed the road as a reasonable ok road. So in the early morning I left Libo, crossed the bridge and cycled out to the eastern hills. The valley was very peaceful and quiet. The road sign to the next town, Pingzhai, was clear and the road to Pingzhai was in excellent condition. This area was magnificent. The road swindled through the hills.

Street life in Libo Guizhou

In the first kilometers it became clear there were plenty of good hikes to do and my guess is that this is what Libo will promote. The hikes can go deep in the hills and guides are essential.

But my road would lead me to Pingzhai and then in good temp to Huangjiang. Or at least, that was the idea. But after Pingzhai the road ceased to exist. There was a small dirt road following the local railroad. With the kilometers passing, the scenery became more beautiful and the road worse. Heavy road constructions were going on here. By the time you read this story, the road will be in excellent condition.

For the road between Huangjiang and Libo alone, I would love to go there again! Rough terrain, never high, but spectacular sites. Although the distance from Libo to Huangjiang was just 100km or so it took me the whole day because I had to use about 30km very bad roads. By the time I was back on decent roads it was already late and I was more then happy to find a good hotel in Huangjiang.

This hotel was probably one of the cheapest and best I ever had. For Y100 (around US$12.50) I had two rooms, living room and bedroom. Both had a big TV and both had a bathroom. By now I had left the bad roads and was on my way to the main connecting road between Liuzhou and Guiyang.

Getting to Libo

In case you feel you want to visit Libo, which is worth to go to, but only if you have time. The best way to get there is by your own transport, a bicycle is by far the best way.

You will be able to get a bus in either Huanjiang and Hechi and from the other direction there is a bus from Dushan. It's unknown to me if you can get a bus from Rongjiang. But if so, it's probably only one bus a day.

Should you decide to travel from either Guilin or Yangshuo, you will need a full day by private transport. It's a long way but if you have the time and the desire to go remote Libo is worth a visit for a few days.

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