Part of the decision to not go to Europe and to expand this trip from 15 to 22ish months was to pick a handful of cities and live there for about a month, learning a near-useless skill or doing some simple job. Yangshuo was the first of these cities just as I had a feeling it would be. After only a couple of days in Yangshuo my mind was made up.
I had heard the the hostel I was staying at, Monkey Jane's, was looking to hire somebody that is fluent in English and I inquired about the position (meaning I asked Monkey Jane after I bet her in a drinking game if I could have the job) and I got it. My job basically consisted of writing signs in English and being constantly harassed by Monkey Jane. After about three days of working at Monkey Jane's I moved to another "job" "volunteering" to "teach" English. In exchange for 1.5 hours of talking to students of English twice a week I got accommodation and lunch and dinner on weekdays. A pretty sweet deal by my standards. Each 1.5 hours was slow and somewhat agonizing because the students' English is often not even at the level yet that conversation is really feasible. However, partially because of their limited English but mostly because of differences in social norms, there were plenty of laughs and utterly hilarious comments, statement, and questions from the students not just to me but to each other. Most are not repeatable on this blog, but, suffice to say that the stereotype the I think most Americans have of Asian cultures being withdrawn and timid, while generally true from my experiences, is thrown out the window when these students tried to speak English. Some truly amazing quotes have been said in the rooms of New Start English in Yangshuo.
The food from my "job" was pretty good, but did get repetitive after some time. There were usually five dishes that everybody helped themselves to. For me, there was always one dish I did not care for at all and one that I really liked. The other three could have been as bad as the one I did not like or as good as the one I did. It was just hit or miss depending on the meal. That being said, I do not think I have ever eaten as much McDonald's during a one month period as I did during my time in Yangshuo. This is the case because dinner was served at 5:30 and just about every night would be a late night (rarely was I in bed before 2AM) and McDonald's was one of only a few places that serves food that late. There were some times when I was there for more consecutive nights than I care to admit to. There were also days were I spent 6-7 hours in McDonald's for reasons other than the consumption of food.
It did not occur to me until recently that other than the aforementioned McDonald's and very limited other Western food I have been eating Chinese food for every meal for about three months. For those do not know, when I am in the States I dislike eating Chinese food more frequently than every four weeks. I can do two weeks in between, but any more than that I am completely uninterested. I attribute this difference to of course the differences in options but also to the differences in Chinese food in China and Chinese food in America. I do not know how to explain why I did not get tired of it here because I do not know why myself. (Either way, I move on to Vietnamese food soon enough.)
Yangshuo itself is an amazing place. It is beautiful, addictive, and fun. There is a huge nightlife. A huge rock climbing scene. A huge tia chi following. A huge kung fu crowd. A huge number of foreigners learning Chinese and Chinese learning English. The town is surrounded by what must be hundreds of karsts, which jut of from the ground at about 80 degrees and dive back to Earth just as sharply, and a river and several streams sprawl all over. Yangshuo is hands down one of the most beautiful places I have ever been and I was there during the time when the weather is at its worst (though still not bad at all by Chicago standards). During my month here I met several people that visited for a few days and ended up staying for a month, come back regularly, came back to move permanently, or never left at all. Staying for a month is not uncommon. Staying for a month intentionally is uncommon.
I went rock climbing twice (sadly only twice), bike riding countless times, on a couple long bamboo raft trips and several short ones, hiking often. I met loads of people and made many friends that I have already maintained contact with and will certainly continue to do so in the future. Yangshuo will provide more long-lasting memories and friends than any other place in China and probably more than any other place I have been to on this trip so far.
21 January 2010
Guilin, China
Guilin is where a lot of Chinese tourists vacation. It is a dream destination of sorts of the Chinese because of its beauty. Consider this: there are 30 five-star hotels and 100 four-star hotels in a city with a population of about 1.34 million. Chicago (population 2.85 million), has 4 five-star hotels and 49 four-star hotels (according to Expedia). There are a ton of Chinese tourists here.
With tourists come pickpocketers, of which, I became a victim. My ipod is no longer with me and it will be missed. I am still undecided if I am going to replace it, though in time I am sure I will.
While Guilin is the end-destination for many Chinese tourists it is a stepping stone for most foreign backpackers, including myself, to Yangshuo, which is described as a backpackers mecca. Guilin itself is an OK city. Well, "OK" is a stretch. The sites are OK, really not that great at all, and the city itself is pretty awful.
The chief attractions in Guilin are Reed Flute Cave, Solitary Beauty Peak, and the Li River. Reed Flute Cave is pretty cool and would be even better if there was not colorful, artificial light everywhere. Yes, it needs to be lit so that it can be viewed, but it does not need to be green, blue, red, or green. Just plain white light would be much better.
Solitary Beauty Peak was skipped because of the 70RMB (more than 10USD) entrance fee. This does not seem like a lot, but that is a huge sum of money here. My hostel in Guilin cost 15RMB per night. 70RMB is more than some parts of the Great Wall. It is an outragous amount.
After a longer-than-expected stay in Guilin because of some stomach problems, I am off to Yangshuo, where, if the place hits me the right way, I will be staying staying for a month making it the first of the handful of cities in my travels I will living in for that length of time.
With tourists come pickpocketers, of which, I became a victim. My ipod is no longer with me and it will be missed. I am still undecided if I am going to replace it, though in time I am sure I will.
While Guilin is the end-destination for many Chinese tourists it is a stepping stone for most foreign backpackers, including myself, to Yangshuo, which is described as a backpackers mecca. Guilin itself is an OK city. Well, "OK" is a stretch. The sites are OK, really not that great at all, and the city itself is pretty awful.
The chief attractions in Guilin are Reed Flute Cave, Solitary Beauty Peak, and the Li River. Reed Flute Cave is pretty cool and would be even better if there was not colorful, artificial light everywhere. Yes, it needs to be lit so that it can be viewed, but it does not need to be green, blue, red, or green. Just plain white light would be much better.
Solitary Beauty Peak was skipped because of the 70RMB (more than 10USD) entrance fee. This does not seem like a lot, but that is a huge sum of money here. My hostel in Guilin cost 15RMB per night. 70RMB is more than some parts of the Great Wall. It is an outragous amount.
After a longer-than-expected stay in Guilin because of some stomach problems, I am off to Yangshuo, where, if the place hits me the right way, I will be staying staying for a month making it the first of the handful of cities in my travels I will living in for that length of time.
Shenzhen, China
From my out-of-date Lonley Planet China: "China's richest city," "was no more than a tiny fishing village until it won the equivalent of the National Lottery and become a SEZ [Special Economic Zone] in 1980,"may not have much culture but is not totally devoid of it." Another distinguishing characteristic of Shenzhen is that it is China's second greenest city, with the second highest percentage of its area being parks and gardens. In retrospect, this is probably Shenzhen's only redeeming quality.
Why did I go there at all? There is no train directly from Hong Kong to Guilin so I was forced to stop somewhere and I thought some time in "China's richest city" would be interesting. I could not have been more wrong if I said Shenzhen was not totally devoid of culture (it is).
Disclaimer: It is possible that Shenzhen was kind of shock to the system. I had just spent more than two weeks in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau, where English is prevelant, people are kind and volunteer their assisatance, and, in short, traveling is easier. This is not true of Shenzhen, as part of mainland China. I dismiss this point, however, because I did not have any of the feeling I have about Shenzhen for Beijing, which was my first Chinese destination.
In trying to figure out why Shenzhen is at the bottom of my list of Chinese destinations, I came up with this, admittedly terrible, analogy: Shenzhen is like that girl that you think you like. She has a come good qualities. For example, she has a good, respectable job (China's richest city) and is good enough looking (lots of parks and gardens). However, you do not know this girl all that well. As soon as you get to know her a little bit you realize she is crazy, mean, and kills baby seals. OK, Shenzhen does not kill baby seals as far as I know, but you get what I mean. Shenzhen has some things going for it but it is missing something crucial as well.
Other than the gardens and parks, there is basically nothing here. And the parks and gardens, as they are will just about everywhere in China, all look the same to the untrained (my) eye. Yeah, they are nice, but I can only look at so many
gardens.
Luckily I did not have to spend long here, though it was longer than I would have liked, and moved on to Guilin.
Why did I go there at all? There is no train directly from Hong Kong to Guilin so I was forced to stop somewhere and I thought some time in "China's richest city" would be interesting. I could not have been more wrong if I said Shenzhen was not totally devoid of culture (it is).
Disclaimer: It is possible that Shenzhen was kind of shock to the system. I had just spent more than two weeks in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau, where English is prevelant, people are kind and volunteer their assisatance, and, in short, traveling is easier. This is not true of Shenzhen, as part of mainland China. I dismiss this point, however, because I did not have any of the feeling I have about Shenzhen for Beijing, which was my first Chinese destination.
In trying to figure out why Shenzhen is at the bottom of my list of Chinese destinations, I came up with this, admittedly terrible, analogy: Shenzhen is like that girl that you think you like. She has a come good qualities. For example, she has a good, respectable job (China's richest city) and is good enough looking (lots of parks and gardens). However, you do not know this girl all that well. As soon as you get to know her a little bit you realize she is crazy, mean, and kills baby seals. OK, Shenzhen does not kill baby seals as far as I know, but you get what I mean. Shenzhen has some things going for it but it is missing something crucial as well.
Other than the gardens and parks, there is basically nothing here. And the parks and gardens, as they are will just about everywhere in China, all look the same to the untrained (my) eye. Yeah, they are nice, but I can only look at so many
gardens.
Luckily I did not have to spend long here, though it was longer than I would have liked, and moved on to Guilin.
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