Yangshou Part 1

I can imagine another place when I travel in China. I look at my cell phone and the date tells me we are in November, but as the sweat drips from my nose from the humid day, this is weather I have never experienced at this time of the year. This seems like the longest summer of my life and after living in the Pacific Northwest for the last several years, I was long due for weather like this.
As we set off to see some of the most glorious land that exists on this vast earth, we had no idea what we are in for. The weather service, which is always wrong in varying degrees said that there would be morning rain and showers and the outlook for the entire weekend in Guilin was not promising. Still, we decided that we needed more than anything to get out of this space, to go somewhere else and experience the subtle differences in China that each province has.
Guilin is an almost perfect weekend from where we are located. It is a mere 7 hours by train to the city and it is fairly cheap to go into the city, just 75rmb for a seat and about 130 for a hard sleeper. We lucked out in getting a hard sleeper, which I must say is not as bad as rumoured. I will take a picture of them next time I go on a sleeper trip, which will be soon. I left my camera here on accident, so the photo opps were limited (which is especially funny because this trip had the most beautiful scenery of all the places that I have been as of yet).
Sleepers are set up in two ways, 6 to a space, 3 of each side--top, middle and lower. They are spacious enough were someone of my size can sleep in them and they are amazingly comfortable for what they are and what they cost. Although they are double the price of the cheap seats, it is a better more secure way to travel for foreigners and anything over 5 hours, a sleeper should be considered.
Our train left Chenzhou at 11:15, so it was pretty much lights out as we arrived on the train. It was relaxing to get onto the train, get situated and then the lights were turned out and I found most people asleep on the train, so I drink a little water and promptly passed out to the sounds of Radiohead. (Thanks Fargo)
Sleeping on the train works quite well for some. My travelling companion, Clair, doesnt have any problems in crashing out within half an hour of the train departing. I however have already developed an annoying habit of waking up everytime the train stops--and there are a lot of stops. I hope to cure myself of this issue in the near future.
We arrived in Guilin in the early morning, just after 7 am, and the sun was just starting to show itself. As the sun began to shine through the cloudline, we were slightly disapointed in the scenery of the city from where we were. It looked like many of the other Chinese cities that we have seen so many times before this--poor shanty shacks leading into the almost overnight revitalization--highrise, modern apartment houses and condo's. It seemed almost surreal to see these striking differences once again. For some reason I had it engrained in my head that this was not going to be the same as the other cities. Perhaps the Chinese would attempt to preserve their most treasured smaller city to the architecture that was shared with the timeless hills, but as I arrived I thought my thoughts would be proven wrong.
There certainly were let downs by the design of the outskirts of the city, but the parts where they want the tourists to stay is a pleasent mix of the new and the old coming together, but almost in a showcased, tourist kind of way.
As we pulled into the station, I was excited by the prospect of being in another place, experiencing another sampling of the different culutral landscape that makes China such an overwhelming place to visit but slightly disapointed by what I had witnessed thus far.
This would be the last moment of my unfavorable attitude toward such a wonderful and beautiful city. From the moment we stepped off of the train, I was caught in a constantly good mood with the beauty of the area surrounding the city.
Guilin is a shopping city and the various tourist kiosks and bureaus around the city certainly document that. Being the tourists that we are, we were captured by the first person that could find us, an Asain women that seemed to speak fairly good english, which always catches me off guard. I know now that this should always raise a question mark, but when I am on vacation, I don't really mind spending a little extra money if it is worth it. Clair and I immediatly began our discussion on what we should do about a hotel (get one now and drop our things or head out into the city and see where we want to center ourselves or rent a bed in a hostel--so many choices! While discussing what we should do, we are greeted with a
"Hello! How are you today, are you looking for a hotel, boat trip to Yangshou?"
This was a double check mark, which made us almost immediate suckers. She led us into what appeared to be a city run tourist bureau and we were greeted by the boss immediatly upon entering. We saw a couple of other people with big backpacks on and this set my mind to ease--but I didnt want to do anything with these people--just get some information on the various places to stay and head out and find it on our own, but it didnt work out that way. I tried to get a little information and move on our way, but Clare kept talking to the guy and soon enough we had a hotel that fit right in our price range and he quoted the ballpark figure of what the boat trip that we wanted to take would cost (and it matched the guidebook, so it seemed it might be a good enough deal, but I felt that since he got us the hotel room, that was probably good enough for now --no need to book the cruise at the same time as the hotel, so we got his card and went on our way to discover Guilin. He took us to the hotel- (Which is always an indicator that you might have paid too much for the ticket. If they are going to get a commision for the sale, they must present you to the hotel and their price is based on that price.)
The thing about pricing in China is always the same-there is always a cheaper price than what you pay because of your skin color and social status. If you let this bother you, you will not have as good of a time as if you just don't worry about it. To a Chinese person, the difference between 125rmb and 200rmb is a lot of money--to a westerner, it is less than 10 bucks and to pay 20usd for a decent hotel room is a good deal regardless. The key thing is that whenever you meet a Chinese person that is in the tourist business or a Chinese person interested in the goods you purchased or how much you spend, they will always tell you you paid too much for things but the reality is that they don't do much better in most positions. There is a price that is negotiable and its fairly easy to learn this key information when coming to China. Nothing has a set price, but there is always a price that they know they can get for the room or the trinket and they are not going to let it go for any less--but they will charge you more. The key is to play along and have fun with it. Don't be afraid to ever walk away from something because if they really want to get rid of it, they will chase you down and if you really want it, you can always go back and get a better price out of them.
I tell you this now, but I admittly didnt follow these very simple directions at all. When I arrive from a long travel, I want to find a place to put my things and get on with my travelling. I don't want to try and find the perfect room, just something to drop off my stuff and when I come back I can sleep in it. If you are spending too much time in a nice hotel, stay home, save your money and buy a hot tub or something fun. Don't waste your money on an expensive hotel--its just another step away from the real Chinese experiece!!!
So, even though we paid too much for the hotel and a couple of other things--we still had an awesome day in Guilin. We were quick to discover how awesome things were inside of the city--there is easily enough to do in that town for at least a week, if not longer.
Tommorow I will talk more about the adventure--incluiding the personalized 2.5 hour boat trip though the most scenic countryside I have ever seen (and I lived in Yellowstone for two summers--this pretty much tops it), feeding free roaming monkey peanuts and my first American breakfast in over two months...
Wednesday will be the much anticipated pictures, which are nothing short of mindblowing....