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Published: April 28th 2015
“Sean, I booked us a hotel in the middle of nowhere and it’s too late to cancel.” I look up from my tablet. “I have no idea how I did this,” I say as I wave a hand at my tablet and my stupid reservation on Booking.com. “I thought this hotel was in Yangshuo because it was called the Xingping Yangshou Hotel. How was I supposed to know that Xingping is another city an hour outside Yangshou?”
Sean smirks and looks at me. “I’m sure it will turn out alright.”
“Yeah, I guess...” my voice trails off as I consider again the travel instructions provided by the hotel. “It says here that there is a local bus that goes from Yangshou to Xingping... if we can figure out how to catch it, we are golden.” For the gazillionth time since arriving in China, I thank my lucky stars that I am able to speak enough Chinese to get us out of these kinds of messes.
“So after the river cruise down the Li Jiang tomorrow, we will land in Yangshuo and then we will have to head right to this crazy Xingping town as all of the bus
service stops at 6pm.”
“Really?” Sean looks at me and raises an eyebrow.
“Yep,” I point to the travelling information, “that’s what it says here.”
“That’s weird.” Sean shakes his head. “China never sleeps.”
“Well it certainly looks like this town does.” I laugh. “We are also going to have to pull money out of an ATM here in Guilin tonight. There are no ATM’s in Xingping.”
“What kind of town is this?” Sean leans over to take a look at my tablet. “Oh well, I guess we will find out after the river cruise tomorrow.” He kisses me on the forehead as we settle into bed. “Don’t worry. First we have to enjoy our river boat cruise tomorrow.”
“Here is your receipt for the big boat river cruise.” She hands us a tiny slip of paper as we check out that morning. “Just give it to the tour operator when you get on the bus.”
“Great,” I think to myself as I take the little slip of paper and scan the lobby for anyone who happens to look like a tour operator. Tour groups are not my thing. However, unless we
want to buy our own boat, joining a group is the only way to ride down the Li Jiang River. I sip at my tea and quietly steel myself for the inevitable terribleness that being part of a tour group brings; screaming babies, large groups of confused people carrying huge and unwieldy luggage, these same people too busy taking selfies of themselves to enjoy where they are and a tour guide that never stops talking.
English breaks through my musings, “are you waiting for the tour?” A younger 30’ish Chinese man stands in front of us and smiles.
“Yes,” Sean enthusiastically says.
“We have a great day planned. You are with me on the best boat. Follow me.” The tour guide smiles and leads us out of our lobby. We cross the street, walk down a block and board a bus parked right in front of the Sheraton.
“This is a good beginning,” I say to Sean as we settle in our seats. “He might not be kidding that we are on the best boat today.” I point to the Sheraton, “that type of crowd usually demands that type of quality”.
“Da jia hao,” (Hello
Everyone) the tour operator stands up at the front of the bus as we depart. As I watch drizzle hit the side of the windows, I hear our tour operator tell the group that he is also going to speak to us in English. Although every opportunity to practice my Chinese is appreciated, it is sometimes nice just to be able to converse in English. While I have noticed that I am hearing, thinking and understanding in Chinese now, I still handle the language awkwardly, almost like trying to use a fork without a thumb. Doable; but awkward and very difficult if I am tired.
“They weren’t kidding about being on the best boat.” Sean says to me as we board. “How much did we pay for this?”
“Not this much,” I say, suitably impressed as I take in the large sofa seats, the glorious buffet in the center of the room and the multi-level opulence. “Maybe they put us on the wrong boat?”
“Shhhh...don’t say that out loud!” Sean looks over his shoulder.
“No one is going to understand us anyway,” I point around us to all of the other guests on the boat.
“Oh yeah!” Sean smiles, “I always forget about that, you know...”
We quickly claim a loveseat near the buffet on the main floor of the boat, right next to the window.
“Wow, we are going to cover 83 kilometers on this boat?” I pick up the brochure in front of me.
“Yes, and this is an AAAAA tourist attraction.” Sean reads seriously as he flicks though, “what the heck does that mean?”
“It means that they are not messing around when they say this is a pretty damn good tour,” I say as I settle into our super comfy loveseat. “I’m ready for four hours of luxurious floating down the Li Jiang River. It will be good because it is all hazy and mysterious, right now with the light drizzle.”
“Well, that was a pretty awesome boat ride.”
“That is was. Hey! Check out that old dude with his bird. Go take a picture with him.” Sean runs over to the old man, hands him 5RMB and I snap a picture.
“So what now?” Sean asks as we climb off the dock at Yangshuo and begin walking through the wall of colors and
Yangshuo Street
This is normalsounds that make up Yangshuo’s famous West Street. A shopping paradise if there ever was one.
“So, we have to figure out how to get to this crazy Xingping place before the local bus shuts down for the evening.” I weave through the general mayhem and begin thinking. “We have to make it to the bus station... I’ll just ask someone...”
“The three of us—you and I with backpacks—will not fit on that motorcycle.” Sean proclaims as I climb on the back.
“Don’t worry,” I wave a hand at Sean, almost as if swatting away his concerns. “See the Chinese dude?” I point to our trusty driver. “He’s driving and he doesn’t seem concerned. Just jump on.”
“Okay,” Sean says slowly as he walks towards the motorbike. I can see that he is still trying to figure out how it’s all going to work.
“I’ll just hold my backpack out to the side of the motorbike, and you get on.” I offer helpfully.
After ten minutes weaving in and out of traffic, and a couple of times that I swore that my heart stopped, we finally pull up to the trusty bus station.
“I think that’s our bus,” I say pointing to one just leaving. I can read the first character---xing. How many other towns in this area of China begin with Xing?
The bus pulls up to us and the door swings open, “Xingping?”
“Shi, (yes)” I reply, and turn to Sean. “Hurry! Our bus is here!”
“What great luck,” I say as we settle into our seats. “This reminds me of a local bus I took in Xi’an a long time ago,” I say as I look around. “I bet you that someone will bring a chicken onto this bus.”
“This is Xingping?” Sean asks as the local bus stops behind a decrepit building. We had been travelling across the countryside for the last hour and had finally come to something that resembled a conglomeration of people. This was like a real adventure.
“Zhe shi xingping ma? (Is this xingping?)” I ask the driver.
“Shi,” the driver smiles as us.
“We’re here!” I am genuinely excited. I love travelling off the grid. I turn to Sean. “This is like being somewhere that hardly anyone has been yet.” I point to the streets.
“Look, there are no people here.”
“No kidding,” Sean says as we begin walking down the deserted main street. “I’ve never seen a quieter place in all of China.”
“Tourism hasn’t come here yet.” I point to all of the construction. “But they know it is coming, look at the buildings going up.”
“Yeah, some really cute cafes and pizza places.” Sean’s voice lowers in contemplation. “I wonder if the people are happy about it.”
“They probably are.” I say, feeling a moment of sadness pass. “They probably think it’s great... little do they know...”
“Yeah, no kidding...” Sean kicks a small stone in the street. “Not too much more time before they become wheels in the great big machine...”
“I know.” I turn to him and smile. “But it’s really cool being here before it all happens. It’s so quiet and slow. It’s nice to know that places like this still exist on Earth.”
“Yeah, it is. Now let’s go find our hotel.”
Sean takes my hand in his. I hear the slight echo of our footsteps as we walk down Xingping’s main street.
The first of many
to come.
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Dancing Dave
David Hooper
Progress
Bullet train to Guilin...digs in Xingping instead of Yangshou...China continues to get smaller. But the best bits are you are tasting life on tracks off the main road which is the China only the adventurous dare discover...albeit by mistake! One day I may blog our adventures in Guangxi so others can see how in only a handful of years the experience can change...but does not have to. Enjoy Xingping.