Does this place look familiar to you? It is a tributary of Li River in Yangshuo, in Guangxi Province of China.

Have you every climbed there?
Did you climb routes which you think hadn't been climbed before?
Do you want other people to know your routes and enjoy them?
Do you have names for them?
If yes,  I hope you find this page interesting.

Yangshuo region was perhaps first explored by climbers in the 80's. When I was climbing there in the summer of 2001, I bumped into old pitons, slings, carabiners that seemed to tell someone's story when they explored Yangshuo climbing. The stories of these climbs, not to say any technical records about them, are getting lost. As this region is being developed into a better known climbing destination, and an active local climber community is forming, I want to collect the early climbing history in Yangshuo.

Some people have climbed there before, and cannot remember or describe well where they have climbed, not to say describing where their routes are.  I hope this page can help them a little. If you can identify routes on rocks shown in any of the pictures, or can tell where the route is located in the map, or if you have some description (either backed up by documentations of any kind or just hazy memories), I would like to hear about them. Feel free to email me. I can append the description at the end of this page or put a link to your report.

Note that the area is being developed quickly. The information in this page reflects what it was like in the beginning of 2002.

January 2003 update: Problems has been reported about the local villagers -- often some bandits -- trying to charge climbers fees, going as far as fencing off climbs and physically threatening climbers. This doesn't always happen. And when it happens it often only takes place at several popular locations, including Jinmao and Panda's Thumb, unfortunately. We suggest the climbers "don't feed the animals" by paying what is demanded -- once you pay, they will come back for moore. If they claim the charge is legal, they are lying. They don't have any official receipt or ticket.
Write down their license plate if they have vehicles, take a picture of them, and dial 110 to report to the police! The police will be on your side (several locals have been arrested).

This is a very rough map of the climbing region near Yangshuo. Click to see a larger version . Note that the area is being developed quickly. 

There are several major climbing areas where people climb mostly. The following tries to describe the relative locations of these areas with more emphasis on naturally protected routes and faces (because they more  obscurethan a line of bolts).

From the town of Yangshuo to the Moon Hill there is a major road (read: paved with asphalt. It might be more primitive before mid-90s. But the road should have been there since decades ago).  From Yangshuo, after less than 10 minutes' ride in a mini-bus, the first group of road-side clean rock (about 80m tall) to the left is the Golden Cat Cave (Jinmao Dong) . There are three bolted lines of 5.7, 5.7 and 5.9-. The third one starts from a impressive big roof. This is a picture of the face where the climbs are. It was taken toward the direction of the town. From  the size of the climber -- click on the picture to enlarge -- one can realize the scale of this face.

There is a road in front of this face leading to the right.

400 meters down the road on the right is the Butterfly Fountain. The locals are building a tourist trap there. Two new bolted lines were put up for a competition around Nov. 2001.

What is interesting is 200 meter down, on the right side. less than 100 meters off the road there is a 120 meter tower called the Panda's Thumb (or the Thumb Hill now by local climbers). The proximity to the road of this tower and the obvious crack systems probably mean there this tower has been climbed in traditional style (using natural protection) many times. People found bail slings on the top and leaver nuts in c.a. late 1999.

There is a prominent crack line that goes straight to the top (indicated by the red line). It could be a multi-pitch traditional route with stellar pitches. I climbed it in three pitches (5.9 G/PG). Unfortunately bolts were added above the big ledge starting from pitch 2 between 2000 and 2001, rendering it yet-another-sport-climb.

There are now some bolted lines running up the face.  The blue lines are bolted by Ken from Australia (who provided me this picture with the blue lines drawn). "HNY" is for the route "Happy New Year", a very popular multi-pitch sport route. There are several climbs, e.g. the green line, the ones in the cave at the bottom of the tower, and new routes being put up relatively recently by local climbers.

Colin Spark has reported (see the route report section) that he and Peter Scott of New Zealand had made what is believed to be the first ascent of this tower in November 1997 (c.f. Rock and Ice #89).

If you are a trad climber looking for things to climb near Yangshuo, Panda's Thumb definitely will catch your eyes.

On Panda's Thumb there is a good view of  rice paddies, villages, and several interesting rock towers against lots of peaks afar. Particularly there is a cylindrically shaped tower, almost shaped like a Coke can,  that can be seen to the let of the center of the above picture. The tower has steep walls that has rather little vegetations growing on them. The green wall to the right of the rock face is on a background tower, which is separated from the "Coke can shaped" tower.

This tower across the major road, about 300 meters into the rice field, is called the "Middle Finger " hill by local climbers. The picture to the right shows a closer look of it. Part of the overhang face that is facing the road is in the right-third of the picture, with part of its North face where several obvious cracks can be seen leading to the top on the left. This tower, like the the Panda's Thumb, is also an eye-catcher for climbers. ( Here and here

A classic two-pitch trad route (5.10 PG, each pitch is 40+ meters) is marked in a larger picture (or click on the picture to the right to see). The belay of P1 was a big ledge that are now equipped with good bolted anchors.  People found bail slings on it. With two 50m ropes one can reach the ground in two rappels. The first ascent party of this route has been identified as Paul Brunner(USA) and Peter Baily (UK). See the Route Reports section below for more details. British climber John Dunne claimed that he and Steve McLure made first ascent of this route. This is not true. 

Down the road, first there are a few towers like the Panda's Thumb, then, about one kilometer from the Thumb, there is a bridge spanning over a river. Good views there (the picture at the top of this page).

About 300m down the road is the Banyan Tree Park . Past the park gate along the main road, through a gate where the locals go, 10 minutes walk leads to a steep face.  The FAs of these climbs (from 5.11 - 5.12) are unknown.

About 300m past the Banyan Tree Park, there is a road (looking for a blue sign) to the right going to the Tongmen Hill (aka Copper Door , the X-crag , the Tunneled hill ), where there are bolted lines put up by Ken. This face can be seen from the main road, although not very obvious. It takes 20 - 30 minutes to walk through tranquil fields and villages. Unfortunately the locals now want to charge for climbing there.

From the Banyan Tree park looking south (i.e. further down the road), one can see to the right side of the major road, there is a killer triangular face on a pointy mountain about 1km away. The mountain is in the same group of hills which the Moon Hill belongs. The hill is about 200m tall. The face is clean and seemed slightly overhanging.

Passing this hill soon one arrives at the Moon Hill, where there were at least 14 identifiable bolted routes. There is a blue sign under the Moon arch that claimed there were 12 route ranging from 5.9 to 5.13, put up by Skinner et al. Two routes are said to have a second pitch each. The picture to the left is Fernando from Barcelona climbing route Number 10 (because of the lack of route name information, all routes on the Moon Hill and most routes in Yangshuo are named by numbers!) It goes over the lip of the arch and is 5.12ish. In the far background is the Banyan Tree area and the road leading to Tongmen Hill.

Here are Paul Brunner's two trip reports posted on rec.climbing about his climbing in 96 - 97.
He reported:
Jasmine   (Middle Finger) 8 pitches, 5.10+ or 5b, E2+; natural pro. FA: Paul Brunner and Peter Baily
Pluto  (Middle Finger) 4 pitches, 5.10; natural pro. FA: Paul Brunner and Peter Baily
        The plastic Disney figure ("Goofy") Peter left on the route, as reported in the TR, was spotted in 2001 by Wang Deming on the Middle Finger peak trad route mentioned above.
Hippie Hunt (located in shouting distance from the Middle Finger) 3 pitches, 5.10; natural pro, FA: Adrio ? and Martin Folkes 

Crag Luebben's report of a new route put up in 2001.
Luebben Route (name will be put here after CL remembers, on Middle Finger) 3 pitches,  5.10, one bolt above the first belay,  the reset is trad  pros and anchors. Wide (10 - 14 cm) useful. FA: Crag Luebben, "Sharma", Jessia (of Peking University).

Colin Spark's email reporting the First Ascent of Panda's Thumb with Peter Scott in November 1997.
Paparazzi Pete  (Panda's Thumb), 5.9  on natural gear. To the left of HYN to the ledge then follow the red line to the top (see Panda's Thumb picture). FA: Colin Spark and Peter Scott.

Here are two pages written in Portuguese by Cláudio Bridi and Frank ByStein describing their climbing trip in 99 (Moon Hill and the Panda's Thumb)

Send your own !

• Route name, 
• route location, 
• how did the route go up the rock (follow which cracks and turn which roof etc.), 
• number of pitches, 
• where were the belays,
• difficulties (grades), 
• protection (easy or not, special gears?),
• any noteworthy comment, 
• last but not least, the names of the climbing party!