Cool Place!
Trip Start
Jun 26, 2005
1
4
43
Trip End
Sep 14, 2005
Yangshou, China
Tuesday, July 5, 2005
Once we'd left the friendly, but insistent accommodation touts at the bus station behind us we hit the narrow cobbles of Xie Jie (West Street) which was previously known as Foreigner Street. It's quaint, unusually old by the standards of Chinese buildings, and lined from end to end with cafes, bars and restaurants, all with English menus, and a raft of gift and clothes shops (fake and otherwise) which seem to go back, and back. I think the word used to describe it was "cute" and that's not a word that comes readily to mind in China (except for the kids). It was magical by contrast to what I'd become used to and never before have I been so happy to get coffee, toast, yoghurt, muesli and orange juice for breakfast. During my whole time I've been in China I've never quite settled on a breakfast I'm comfortable with, and now within 30 minutes this place has solved it! What's the saying about a way to a man's heart being his stomach?
If the village of Yangshuo has a total more than 10 kilometres of roads I'd be surprised. At least 50% of that has got to be geared up to visitors and all over there are markets, low-key hotels and tour agents offering hiking, biking or boating trips to places like Moon Hill, Mud Bath Cave, Blind Fish Cave and XingPing. Somehow, it's turned into a Western - Chinese hybrid and I can see why backpackers lay up here. It's like a secret that everyone knows about, yet it's not gone development crazy in the crass way that Guilin has. It's strange to be somewhere with no more than 4 storeys anywhere in town.
I don't know what it is, but Yangshuo has an intangible something and trying to describe it hasn't enlightened me one bit. It's certainly a nice change to be able to stand and look at the countryside and people watch in traffic free streets, and that's just what Natasha and I do as we wile away the hours before we take the cheap cruise up and down the river from Xingping and later say our final goodbyes. Saying goodbye brings a little sadness, but above all there's the relaxed, cheerful optimism of knowing that new adventures and paths await us. Yangshuo's a fitting setting for it - it's a cool place.
