Yangshuo, China

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on this blog, but, suffice to say that the stereotype the I think most Americans have of Asian cultures being withdrawn and timid, while generally true from my experiences, is thrown out the window when these students tried to speak English.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.