Yangshuo - China's Western Playground

The bus ride to Yangshuo was certainly memorable. As we pulled into Guilin - your narrator twisted uncomfortably in a small seat as usual with my legs sticking out in the aisle to avoid the seat in front of me banging continually against my knees - I saw the large karst stone mountains rising up around the sprawling city. The limestone structures are created by the same forces that molded the stone forest, except these ones are more like mountains than trees. The land between the mounds is surprisingly flat, giving the appearance that these huge stone structures just rose out of nowhere - a description that's probably more or less true, but I'm no expert on the subject. As we came into town, the TV on the bus, which had previously been playing Taiwanese pop videos, now showed a video about how to make house music in English. To show they were the undisputed masters of house, they shared there own pumping rhythm, and so my arrival included a driving techno soundtrack which was fun for about 10 minutes, but after 25 I was ready to kill someone.

As I've been getting used to over the last few weeks, I stayed in Guilin just long enough to find the bus to Yangshuo. The ticket was pricier than I expected, but the bus was plush - a real coach bus with legroom and a TV showing "102 Dalmatians" which was so simpleminded I followed the whole plot despite the dubbed Chinese. The bus ride took about an hour as we wound through the Karst towers well lit by the receding sun.

Yangshuo has a reputation as the western backpackers mecca, but has built on that reputation and become a paradise for foreigners of all types with fancy hotels alongside little guesthouses. The small town inhabits the small voids among a spattering of karst towers. The towers literally rise right out of the town, so where ever you wander you can look straight up to the limestone towers sprinkled with trees and shrubs. West Street, the main drag, is a cobblestone pedestrian street which cuts under Green Lotus Peak from the bus station to the Li River. The street is lined with cafes, shops and bars, all of which advertise rooms to rent. Unlike most of China, everyone speaks English in the tourists' little slice of heaven. Inside the cafes westerners sip real coffee and eat pizza with cheese that manages not to taste like plastic. The natural beauty and laid back atmosphere brings its share of Chinese tourists as well, but the concentration of westerners in the streets is still quite staggering.

Streets of Yangshuo

Green Lotus Peak and the Li River

Yangshuo as it turned out, deserved every bit of its reputation. The place was extremely laid back. Despite the numerous options of activities to fill the day (of which you were constantly reminded by the numerous "tour guides" wandering the streets and cafes) it seemed whenever you asked someone what they did that day the answer was either "nothing" or occasionally "almost nothing." After my epic bus tour through the mountains, I was ready for a vacation from my vacation and planned to use Yangshuo as a chance to relax. I feel I've fulfilled all my goals of the China experience and, although there's always more I could do, I felt I deserved some needed R&R. So I kicked back, drank coffee, ate pizza and read a lot. Since there's so much in the town the hostel didn't have much of a common area so my home base became the aptly named Drifters Cafe. My first night I met a couple Israelis and a British guy and almost every time I went in there they were there and I'd join them. We played some cards, ate and occasionally went around the corner to the Buffalo Bar which was run by an Australian who seemed to always be drunk (or at least he used it often as an excuse for many different situations).

I'm probably misleading you a bit however as, being a fairly active person, I couldn't really spend six days in a place like this without doing anything. The highlight was clearly my trip rock climbing. The steep walls of the Karst mounds make for ideal climbing and so starting about ten years ago a couple Americans started developing routes and different climbs. I checked out the local climbing shops and found one that looked good. Being far too ambitious I inquired about 2-3 day trips, but after only a quick once over they told me "a half day will be enough" and they were right. I convinced Tom (aforementioned British character) to come with me on my
adventure.

I was happy to have climbed recently so I knew that our guides were using all the proper safety precautions because, as I've noted before, China's doesn't always have safety as the top concern on their list. As I've also indicated, Chinese tourists don't typically like to think too much, and the tourist industry is se tup to allow them to not have to. This apparently applies to rock climbing as well. Our guides knew we were beginners so from the outset they took every opportunity to yell directions as we tried to make it up the rock face. They'd yell things like "left foot up" and "right foot left knee" which was all very confusing. It didn't help that, despite doing this all day everyday, they evidently still didn't know the difference between a foot and a hand which made their already confusing directions even more so. As a problem solver with a stubborn independent streak, this didn't sit so well with me. With a little of Tom's help I eventually convinced them that I wanted to figure it out for myself – a concept that took them quite some time to grasp. All in all, rock climbing was great and a clear highlight. It was tough and I'm still sore, but am so glad to have gone. I hope to go in Thailand too, because I heard it's great down there, too.

Rock climbing in Yangshuo

For other activities, I hiked to the top of Green Lotus Peak, the tall peak that rises above West Street, via a sketchy dirt path that went almost straight up. At times coming down I would just turn my feet and slide down the loose dirt, like skidding on ice with skis. The view looking down the Li River and down onto the town was amazing. I also rented a bike one day and took off to the countryside, winding through small villages along the Yu Long river and coming out at Moon Hill, the most famous Karst peak due to the gaping hole in the middle.

View from Green Lotus Peak

View through Moon Hill

I also rang in the new year in Yangshou, a night which started slowly, but picked up when we found the crowded bar filled with cross-dressing bartenders about 30 minutes before midnight. The new year arrived without the customary ball dropping and champagne but I did get covered in silly string, wore a funny hat and sunglasses and woke up with a terrible headache, so that was good, or...er, bad.

Happy New Year

Now I'm back in Guilin, but staying this time and meeting up with my sister. More stories to come.

I've posted pictures relating to my previous post on the Flickr link at right, but the orientation of some of them appears off. If you click on them, they will appear correctly, but they look funny in the preview. I'll fix it when I get a better internet connection.