Yangshou

Long time no write but the past week or so have been really good at a little remote. I initially spent 2 nights in Yangshou which I loved. Being one of the first parts of China to open its doors to the tourist trade, it’s clear to see this focus here with one or two main pedestrianised streets and several more smaller ones branching off, all serving as Westoner friendly eats places, hostels, hotels, excursion operators, bars and shops. Aside from all that though, a matter of meters on from this small area and you’re back to Yangshou as a Chinese town.

There are so many reasons why I enjoyed my time here so much, but I think what really helped was the sudden arrival into summer (it’s so nice not to have to layer up all the time for a change) and the beauty of the area. Yangshou is surrounded by the Karst mountains, hundreds (I’m pretty sure hundreds, I did try to ‘wikipedia’ it for you but freedom of information sights don’t work so well in China) of pinicals and kind of mini-mountains. They looked like the stereotypical jagady mountains you might have drawn as a child. The view of one group of these peaks are distinctive enough to make it on to the 20yuan note. Then positioned in the flat areas between the peaks are the villages and crops which, after 3 weeks on the Chinese diet of fried, deep-fried or sugar coated everything, and an average view of snow, desert, concrete or smog, looked even more appealling to me with the lush fields of bright green dotted with the colours of fresh oranges and strawberries. The orange juice is good here too, the first place it’s actually has been fresh. Everywhere else it’s been more expensive than beer and artificial anyway with loads of sugar added. One glass could leave me buzzing for days!

I think I made the most of my time in Yangshou and probably managed to get a whole 8 hours sleep across my 2.5 day. Both mornings I succeeded in getting up at 6am to make it to the park by 7 for my master classes in two Chinese diciplines. The first being a non violent approach to kung-fu and then the second being an extremely non violent attempt at Tai Chi. Both consisted of learning a universal series of moves, so as far as kungfu is concerned, I reckon if I practice enough, I can defend myself ok just as long as I’m attacked in the right way, at the right time and according the sequence of my routine.

The park is nice though, positioned at the base of a mountain or two and separated from the town by a small stream, it gradually came alive between the hours of 7 and 8 in the morning. Men walked around a dirt court clapping as a warm up before embarking on a croquet style game a bit later. Meanwhile other groups of people gathered in clearings for their morning Tai Chi workout.

In the evening, the place really picked up for the lantern festival, which I think co-incides with end of Spring Festival (Chinese New Year). Riddles are set up for people to compete to solve whilst parades of dragons march to and from the town. Further into the crowds a variety of cultural acts are being performed on stage. Thinking this place existed mostly to serve the tourist I was reassured to see how wrong that impression was. The festival was rammed but with locals more than anyone else. The previous night, when we arrived, was a far quieter occasion. After some food we had the whole street to our selves to play that foot badmington game, and anybody that did happen to wonder by joined us for a few minutes before continuing on down the street. Even local bar staff played for the best part of the game and returned to their duties once they’d suitably shown us up and worn us out. Festival night was packed solid with people, games in the street just wouldn’t have worked.

I did some climbing here too (pictured), which was really good but a little sharp on my hands. I’ll admit I was pretty nervous on the first route up, but was forced to settle in to it quite fast and the team were soon forcing me to jump to the holds I couldn’t reach. I wish I was taller. I also took a bamboo raft along the River Li which was quite peaceful apart from the odd Cormick fisher who’d paddle over and do his best to get us to photograph him for money. At one point however, on dry land after wandering off to picture a bull eating the only bit of rubbish in the lush landscape, I was stealth like enough to snap the fisherman from afar as he spied out our group by the shore and paddled in.