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Published: June 29th 2007
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Heading out from Hong Kong, we took a short train to Shenzen which is Hong Kong's nearest border to the Chinese mainland, and went through visa and passport control. We were finally in mainland China! It was actually a bit underwhelming, as everything seemed to be the same except that there was no English writing anywhere to be seen.
We boarded the first of many overnight trains we would be taking and were introduced to the beauty that is Chinese train travel. The trains from place to place range in quality, and this particular train was on the higher end according to our guide. There were 3 levels of bunks, the dining car was pretty tasty, and lights out for the whole train was 11 PM. The beds were actually not half-bad, except that the Chinese don't seem to have a concept of vocal volume control late at night, and whenever someone would walk by, you think they were in a crowded nightclub, waking us all up. On that topic, the trains are the way that the locals travel, and we were probably the only non-Chinese on the train. I think that many of the other passengers may have
been wondering if we had taken a wrong turn somewhere and ended up on the train accidentally.
We got into the city of Guilin early the next morning, relatively tired, and boarded a local bus. Interesting fact, when there aren't enough seats left on the bus, the driver pulls out little plastic stools and people sit in the aisle. The views from the window were lovely, at least what I observed between naps, and we finally made it to Yangshuo: a country town that has become very popular with domestic and foreign tourists and serves as a staging ground for activities in the Chinese countryside.
Yangshuo was a very quaint, nice, little town, except that it seems to have sold its soul for tourist cash. Nearly every establishment was a store, restaurant, bar, or hostel catering solely to tourists. I got the feeling that this is what older backpackers mean when they complain about a place having been so nice before it "was discovered" and in this case, turned into tourist-ville. The brick and mortar city of Yangshuo was really quite something, and you could see the beautiful mountains from nearly every corner, but it was hard to
focus on as the shouts of "hello, come to my store, take a look" were hard to ignore. Still, we were happy to be off the train and got around to exploring, taking in the scenes and enjoying the local Li Quan beer. Interestingly, a lot of the Chinese tourists were students whose assignments were to practice English with the foreigners by taking a picture with them, and getting their (our) autographs. We walked around town feeling like celebrities.
We took a bicycle ride out into the countryside on the second day. I hadn't been on a bike in over a decade (I'm really dating myself here), and was having some issues keeping it going straight. This issue was of particular concern as the first stretch of the journey was through some relatively conjested streets, and I was re-mastering steering by dodging motos and cars. Still, this was the best way to take in the countryside once we made it to the dirt trails. Whenever we would take a break however, it seemed like the same 3 old Chinese ladies would jump out of a bush, or from behind a stone pillar trying to sell us postcards and other
useless knick knacks. They were persistent and wouldn't leave until we'd ride away on our bikes.
We stopped off at a local family's house off one of the trails to eat lunch, and enjoyed one of the first amazing meals we'd be savoring in the coming days. The Chinese food we get back in the States only scrapes the surface of what China has to offer. Aside from the food tasting amazing, the creativity is off the charts. For example, some of the dishes we sampled that I would have never thought of are: pork dumplings made from pumpkin blossoms, and skewered, breaded, fried broccoli - delicious! I wonder if maybe I could find some of this stuff in Chinatown in DC or New York? I think I'll just be ruined for eating Chinese after what I'll have had here.
After 5 hours on a bike, my rear end was hurting a lot. We made it back to Yangshuo, and after an excellent dinner, started on a night out. Yangshuo undergoes a metamorphosis during twilight, and coffee shops and restaurants turn into bar/dance clubs. You can hear the bass all over the city and there is so much
neon that it seems like daylight. There are dancers stationed at the doors trying to draw tourists in. However, with so many options, and relatively, so few tourists, there isn't a single bar we found that had many people in it. We settled on one, and after some drinks, got to dancing. Some locals walked in and challenged one of our guys, Dan, to a dance-off. After some close rounds, Dan "served" the local guy by pulling off the ever challenging bar-stool power lift.
Yangshuo seems to burn itself out quickly though, and when we left the bar at 1 AM, nearly everything was closed. Trying to find a late-night bite, we sat at the only place we found open. Ignoring the dog dishes (no joke) on the menu, I settled on what looked mild - chicken cutlet, and was a bit surprised to be served a half of a vertically cut chicken with head and all...
We spent the last day in Yangshuo relaxing and getting some massages to help out from the lingering soreness from the bike ride... and then on to another overnight train.
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