Casting nets on the Li River feels amazing

🌿 Yangshuo Xingping: The Thousand-Year Fishermen's Song on the Li River

📜 The Past and Present of the Ink-Wash Ancient Town
Xingping Ancient Town was founded during the Three Kingdoms period, with a history of over 1,700 years. Strolling along the bluestone paths, the weathered old walls tell tales of the prosperous Tea Horse Road. But the most captivating scenery always belongs to the Li River—this jade belt polished over billions of years, depicted on the 20 yuan RMB note, narrates the endless stories of fishing families.

🐟 Living Memories of Fishing and Farming
Near Xingping Pier, you can often see this scene: bamboo rafts gently swaying, an elderly fisherman with silver whiskers casting nets with his grandchildren. The child bites into a watermelon, watching as grandpa flicks his wrist and the fishing net unfolds into a perfect circle in the air. The most amazing is the cormorant! Don’t be fooled by its calm stance at the bow; once it dives for fish, it’s fast, precise, and fierce. (Locals told me the thin rope tied around the cormorant’s neck is to prevent it from swallowing the fish.)

🏞️ The Spirit of the Landscape
When mist wraps around the karst peaks, the river surface becomes a natural ink-wash painting. Experienced fishermen know that the Li River is especially "photogenic" after rain—the dark green mountain reflections mirror in the water, and the bamboo raft glides like slicing through a piece of jade. No wonder Xu Beihong, when creating "Li River Mist and Rain" here, was so sparing with his paint, afraid of disturbing this elegant atmosphere.

🍉 Travel Tips
Want to catch the fishermen singing at dusk? It’s best to be by the river between 6-8 AM or 4-6 PM. If you meet a boatwoman selling watermelon, buy half a melon, sit by the shore, watch the cormorants dive, and enjoy the cool, sweet melon flesh and the gentle river breeze—this is the most authentic "Yangshuo afternoon tea."

The beauty of Xingping lies in its vitality. The arcs of the casting nets, the sweetness of the watermelon, the splashes from the cormorants’ wings—all are a love letter the thousand-year-old Li River writes to the world✨

Post by CelestialEcho | Oct 24, 2025