The China Journal - Day 31-35

After another long day of travel, we arrived in Yangshuo, a town just south of Guilin in Guangxi province. With streets lined with an innumerable variety of restaurants serving Western fare, bars and nightclubs blasting music through their doors until the early hours of the morning, and the throngs of white people that seem to have sprouted from out of nowhere, it's hard to believe that the Cultural Revolution had ever rolled through here.

Needless to say, the assault on our senses causes a shock to both our systems. Having spent the last few weeks in the remote rural frontiers of Southern China, we both felt as if we'd just walked into a strange new world. That being said, we took full advantage of the opportunity to indulge in as much coffee and bacon and egg breakfasts that we can, a sharp departure from the monotonous standard of noodle soup each morning.

Due to the sheer number of tourists in Yangshuo, however, the number of touts hassling us to buy cheap souvenirs or tour services rivaled what we've experienced in Southeast Asia, but something which thankfully had not been an issue in China up until this point. The extent that some locals would go to make a sale signaled the desperation, in some cases, to cash in on the tourist trade as a means to support themselves and their families. While this might seem commendable in some instances, in others, it's nothing but a nuisance.

For example, one woman jumped on a bus with Laura and I to a village an hour north of Yangshuo where we had planned to hire a boat to take us down the scenic Li River. So intent was she to convince us to ride her boat that she trailed us through the village, waited as we had our lunch and even stood outside the entrance to the outdoor toilets shouting at us all the while. When we did get down to the river, we were swarmed by a legion of old women trying to sell us everything from peanuts to beer to boat hires, each clamoring over one another in an attempt to make a sale. It honestly felt like I was somewhere on Tatooine and a bunch of feisty Jawas were trying to sell me some crappy, run-down droids.

Nevertheless, we managed to lay low and relax, staying longer than planned partly out of need (I'd come down with a nasty cold), and partly out of want (where else in China could we get pizzas and veggie burgers?). With our batteries recharged, we were ready to tackle the next leg of our trip.

Little did we realize, however, how quickly those batteries would become depleted.