Escape from the cities: finding serenity in southern China

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It was a long journey to reach Yangshuo involving an overnight train ride that stretched from the far northern reaches of China down to the tropical south, and then a 2 hour bus ride until I arrived in the beautifully bizarre landscape of Guangxi.
Guangxi is not typical to the rest of China. It has a tropical feel, more like Vietnam or Cambodia. And being very close to the border, it is home to many Chinese-Vietnamese as well as most of China's minority groups. For centuries it had resisted merger with the rest of the country, and even now it is known as an autonomous region. The reason I find myself in this colorful village is to volunteer as an English teacher for the remainder of my time abroad. But to my luck, the site of my volunteering just happens to be in one of the most beautiful areas in all of China. The region is made up of karst peaks, blocks of limestone jutting out of the ground at bizarre angles and sprinkled with lush green vegetation. Some travelers dub it Dr. Suess landscape, because of the karst's surreal shapes.
Guangxi's colorful minority villages and peaceful natural beauty make Yangshuo a paradise to foreign backpackers and rich chinese alike, looking to trade in the pollution and chaos of a typical Chinese city for a slower, quieter pace.
Although there is a booming tourist industry in town, all of the tourists remain confined to only two main streets crammed with posh hotels, western bars, restaurants and souvinier stands. The rest of Yangshuo is for the locals, and their lifestyle here is still quite preserved. There are no food or clothing chains, other than one pesky KFC, which is the Chinese favorite food. Giant air-conditioned supermarkets have not yet made their debut in China, and so shopping is done the old fashioned way; plain one-room shops line the street, one offering tea and beverages and the next offering sandals. Women sit inside their windowless, doorless shops lounging on wooden chairs in the heat of the day, or sweating over ancient sewing machines to mend the townspeople's clothes. Men sit at tables in the street showing off pieces of meat wrapped in newspaper to customers while farmers slowly make their way into town at dawn with two bamboo baskets filled with produce balanced upon their shoulders by a piece of wood. They sit in the streets, wisking away flies or drying peppers, waiting for the local restaurants to come to market. Most locals ride bicycles or motorbikes, often quite dangerously. One man zoomed past me riding a dusty scooter in plastic sandals smoking a cigarette with two drums of petrol tied unsteadily to the back, while in the opposite direction, a women rode by on bicycle, holding an umbrella in one hand and a huge live duck upside down in the other as it flapped its wings in protest. From dawn to dusk the town park is filled with old men lazily winding down the day with a game of cards or dominos. Everyone moves in a slower pace here and no one seems to worry about anything (but making money of course), as it is too hot to do otherwise.
University students or working professionals from all over China come to Yangshuo to soak up the beautiful and relaxing atmosphere for a month or two while improving their English. Most students work in careers where using English is vital, such as import/export business, working with foreign companies or for call centers assisting foreign clients. And so, there are over 15 english schools set up around Yangshuo, advertising authentic English classes taught by real foreigners. At night, the students take to the trendy drinking district for the opportunity to practice their language skills on some of the tourists.
Some of the teachers at my school have been here for over a decade, and receive around 100RMB ($17) for each class they teach. Unlike the other schools in town, which only offer paid classes, my school also has free sessions hosted by volunteers such as myself. I work about 2 hours a day from Monday to Thursday hosting what is called the 'English Corner' where I chat with a group of students about any topic we choose. Held outside after dinner, we sit around picnic tables and as the sun goes down, chat about everything from history and education to love and relationships. Their English ability is pretty high, nearing fluency, but most of them are here looking for oral practice or for expanding their vocabulary. The school is extremely laid back except for one rule that is strictly enforced: no using Chinese on school grounds. In only this past week, I have been able to learn so much about China from my students during these discussions. I even got to bring up the subject of Mao. I asked them if they though he was a good leader or not, sure that since they were well-educated, they must really know that they have been fed large doses of propaghanda. But, to my dismay, they shared unanamous support for him. While they recognize the fact that a lot of horrible things happened to the Chinese under his leadership, they still think the world of him. "But under him, China became united", one girl said to me. Another replied, "No man is God, so you can't blame him for his mistakes". It felt like I had just asked a room full of Evangilist Christians if they were sure God existed. Also interesting is the Chinese insistance that China must be united. This feeling is the reason behind why China forces Tibet to be part of the country even though it wants independance. It is also the reason China insists that Taiwan is China when it is not. Many Chinese have a phrase about this, "One China, two governments". It doesn't like the fact that during the Mao era, Taiwan withdrew from China. To this day, all the maps in China show Taiwan as part of the country, while all other international maps do not. Many times, angry customs inspectors will cease tourist's travel books over this map dispute.
Other than politics, students like to ask me many questions about America and about traveling. None of them have ever left the country, and you can tell they are hungry to do so. For them, a plane ticket out of China would be about 4000RMB. This is only $700 dollars to us, but to some Chinese this is an entire year's salary. This is also what keeps the Chinese public ignorant to what goes on in the rest of the world. The closest thing most Chinese will ever have to that experience is by watching a hollywood movie. It makes me understand why when they see foreigners traveling in their country, they assume we are all rich, and have no qualms about ripping us off.
And speaking of such things, now that I am in Yangshuo working at the school, I am finally able to stop spending so much as I can now pay the Chinese price for things. For example, if I go to rent a bicycle by myself, it would cost 30 RMB plus a 400 RMB deposit (the foreigner price). However, if I go with my students, it is just 5 RMB, about 75 cents, with no deposit (the Chinese price). The school also organizes a trip to one of the tourist attractions every weekend, at a fraction of the price that the tourists pay. Now that I see what the Chinese pay for things, it is shocking just how much foreigners are taken advantage of.
Other than English Corner, I also host a one hour speech once each week where I teach students about any topic I see fit. If anyone has a suggestion about a topic, let me know 😉
One nice thing about being in China is just how informal everyone is. Japan is laced with so many rituals and mandatory expressions, whereas the Chinese are blunt and don't care about making good impressions or keeping up good appearences. For example, I met one teacher in town with massive dreaded hair down to his waist and a beard down to his belly (kind of like a troll actually, but a really nice fellow). It's a stark contrast to Japan, where most men are not allowed to have facial hair at work. The school building is a little run down, but always open to students and teachers, guarded by two sleepy dogs and a friendly cat. Things tend to change quite often around here, as there is no real structure. I can see why so many foreigners use Yangshuo as a backpacking colony to escape their more demanding home countries. Outside of the class, we can join the students in games of pingpong or pool in the abandoned lot, and I am teaching them how to play frisbee, as I brought my own disk from Japan.
In return for volunteering, I get free lunch and dinner each day, eaten communally with the students in our dining hall. They like to refer to the local cuisine as 'farmers food' as it consists of 6 or so plates of either veggies, meat, or tofu always thrown together in some kind of oily spicy sauce. The school owns various apartments throughout the city, so I get my own room. It is certainly a modest abode, though, one light and a ceiling fan with no kitchen. the bathroom consists of a squat toilet and a broken shower. There is no hot water, but you don't really need it as every day is about 30C/90F degrees.
As this is a tropical zone, the misquitoes are savage. My weak Japanese bug spray seems to not phase them, and the only misquito aid sold at stores here is coils that you burn at night, impregnating your clothes with the smell of smoke.
But the next few weeks promise to be really great, and I'll have an assortment of hiking, climbing, boating, cave dwelling, cycling, and bamboo rafting to keep me busy and tell you all about next time.
Until then
X

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Comments

[Chrissy Columbus]

What to teach...
Why not teach then the basics of the old Greenhouse effect, and Global heating?

[hu]

I love you blog. I am sorry about the story of bike(The school also organizes a trip to one of the tourist attractions every weekend, at a fraction of the price that the tourists pay.). In fact i do not think this is common now in China. You visited Shanghai, Beijing and Xi'an, the prices of sights are the same with Chinese, right? So, do not use one place to cover all China. The regulations in China are not perfect, so they change from provinces to provinces, from cities to cities, even from street to street. I do agree with your students that China must be united. I do not agree that Tibet and Taiwan want to be independent. Actually some want to be independent, Not all. I do not agree "This is also what keeps the Chinese public ignorant to what goes on in the rest of the world." What I want to say is Chinese know more about US than American know about China. Every yeas tens thousand Chinese students go abroad to study, about 30 millions Chinese travel abroad. Today internet is also very convenient to know the rest of the world. As you say, actually westerns pay more attentions to politics. In fact, I am in USA now. I am angry to western medias that distort the news about China. But i can do nothing. You are a very kind person, I suggest you to learn more about Chinese history(very complicated) if you want. But do not fully based on the western medias. I am very sad that American are very sad to the death of 4000 US soldiers rather than 500000 Iraq people. So I do not accept western values( This does not mean i do not trust western people! In fact most of them are very friendly.). Thank you. Have a nice trip.

[Lisita]

thank you for your comment!
Hi, this is lisa from Yangshuo. thank you for sharing your opinion of my writing. part of the reason i am in china is to understand and decide for myself about China. As you say, western media is distorted. I agree, but don't you think Chinese media is also distorted? That is why I want to learn for myself so I can make my own judgements. And I agree that my opinion that taiwan and tibet want to be independant come from western media sources. But I think the only way to know the truth is to travel to tibet and taiwan and ask those people for themselves. I was also wondering, you mentioned the internet as a source for Chinese to know about the world, but what do you think about Chinese government's censorship of over 10% of all web content? Don't you think that this firewall is to keep the Chinese people ignorant about anything that might contradict or weaken the communist party? Thank you again and I hope to hear your response to this! kind regards, lisa