Yangshuo

On the top 10 list of places to visit in Guilin, most of them are actually in Yangshuo, a small city an hour and a half bus-ride to the south.  I made part of this hop to Yangshuo by rafting down the Li River and it is quite obvious why Yangshuo is such a popular destination.  So popular in fact, that I disliked the city once I got there.

Weirdly enough I was becoming aware of my dislike for being around other foreigners.  A handful of foreigners is nice and offers a group of people to chat with, share past experiences and tips with, and people to go on tours with but this rapidly expanding city and region had too many.  I easily saw more foreigners in a day then I had seen in all prior days in China combined.

I guess it was just me being selfish that I wasn’t alone in this region.  This may have been an untouched haven a generation ago but it is becoming increasingly westernized and definitely caters to the foreign crowd.  The tiny villages surrounding Yangshuo are also seeing a boom in hotel construction and you currently have to pay individually to enter every scenic area this region has to offer.

I wanted to get away from this busy little city and take in the scenery that all resembles a beautiful painting so I rented a bicycle and rode through the villages along the Yulong River.

Despite being a small, uncomfortable, and crappy mountain bike that squeaked and clunked every now and then, it was quite fast.  I could easily pass electric mopeds and it was certainly fast enough to trigger the flash of traffic cameras. It was lightly raining throughout the day but it was refreshing to spend the day riding from village to village.

We’ve all heard stories of it but the next day I found myself in a local meat and produce market.  There were the usual local veggies and pork, but also cages of live chickens, rabbits, and ducks and bins of weird eels and different species of turtles.  Behind all that were cages of sickly dogs and cats below the dangling carcasses of dogs.  I knew this kind of thing is popular in this region so I wasn’t at all surprised.  But, as a westerner, it’s still strange to see.

From what I’ve been told, there are specific breeds of dogs used for eating.  I’ve had plenty of street food in China so who knows… I may have unknowingly tried some already.

I’ve added dozens of people in Wechat, the Chinese messaging app but I had the pleasure? of making friends with a Chinese girl visiting Yangshuo.  She stopped me as a waitress was leading me up some stairs to a table in this second-floor restaurant.  She had a translation app open asking me if we could be Wechat friends.  I showed her my Wechat QR code and then continued to my table.  I don’t even remember what she looked like but she wanted to go sightseeing the next day.  I said no and then she started to reveal her motivations through the translate function of Wechat of her looking for a humble foreign guy to marry and have a child with.  Missed opportunity perhaps?  Nah.