There's nothing to stop you simply picking a distant hill and heading out there - cycling along the muddy paths between villages takes you through some wonderful scenery - but for a specific target it's hard to beat the twenty-kilometre return trip out to Moon Hill . This lies on the highway southwest of town as it twists between the sudden peaks - some of these are negotiable for a fair height before becoming too sheer to climb. A rifle range about 3km from Yangshuo welcomes you to "shoot a gun in this beautiful place it makes you in madness happy", but far more interesting are the Black Buddha New Water Caves , a series of underground cavers discovered only in 1991, accessed down a 500-metre easterly track just short of Moon Hill - highlights include an underground river, fossils and bats. Another 3km along the same track are the equally imposing Black Dragon Caves , where you take a boat, then have to wade and stagger through the largest regional caverns yet discovered to a fifteen-metre subterranean waterfall and swimming holes inhabited by blind fish. Only open in summer, either system costs about ¥40 for an hour's tour, or ¥60 for a three- or four-hour flashlight exploration; come prepared to get wet.

Moon Hill itself (¥3, plus ¥1 to park your bike) requires forty minutes of effort to ascend a stone staircase rising through bamboo and brambles to the summit. A beautiful sight, the hill is named after a crescent-shaped hole that pierces the peak. Views from the top are breathtaking, with the whole of the Li River valley spread out before you, fields cut into uneven chequers by rice and vegetable plots.