Owen College.

I just thought this one was nice.
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CLAIRE.

Arrived at Yangshuo in the wee, dark hours of the morning. To cut a long story short we were met by someone who introduced himself as Owen, the owner of the College, took us to a hotel and then abandoned us. We made our way to the real College and were welcomed, confused and disorientated. Shortly after we arrived 'our school' met us, wined and dined us, then they too abandoned us. Turns out they were looking for the other Australian couple not us. The close proximity of these events to each other proves that Ryan and I are vague and far too trusting and really should have stayed at home were our mothers can watch out for us.

The shape of the karsts and peaks look like crazy ice cream sundaes that have melted away at the sides.

Cars in China are a bit strange.
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Wandered West Street (XieJie) taking in the wonderful, intoxicating smells, sounds, colours and people. Silks, clothes, ornaments and so much CRAP sold at far too high prices to greedy foreigners. We bought rip off Colorado jackets that will hopefully last a few months. They didn't dissolve in the rain so this was a good start. Between this and hanging out with the other teachers, we had training with the magnificent Betts Mackenzie.

What amazed me the most was that the people of Yanshuo live so dependently on the constant stream of tourism. It's scary to think of a livelihood based so purely on this absolutely unpredictable area.

Ryan on the streets of Yangshou in his sexy new jacket
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At a BBQ at Omeida College (a language school) I met a girl called Jojo who has fantastic language skills and is creative ( a rarity here). She told me she gets in trouble a lot from the teacher for having opinions and asking questions in class. I felt so sorry for her; her frustration at being repressed is interpreted as being 'naughty and rude'. She also told me she is angered by the inequality between the rich and poor in China. She gave me the Chinese name 'Gigi' which she thinks is lovely. I think it sounds like a hooker or phone-sex worker. It later turned out this was the name of a famous singer. I renounced it as my name.

The mountains of Yangshuo by the Li River.
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The mountains of Yangshuo are amazing. The shape of the karsts and peaks look like crazy ice cream sundaes that have melted away at the sides. Every time I see them I still feel as if they are a dream I am seeing for the first time.

RYAN.

A sleeper bus can leave you pretty disorientated after 11 hours of bumpy, attempted sleep. The Chinese are generally a short race of people, so my bed was a little too short for me. I have no idea what some of my friends from Australia would do in this situation, as the bed would be half as tall as they are.

Vehicles in China seem to be made from whatever is lying around.
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This first thing I noticed in Yangshuo was the semi-fresh air compared to Shenzhen which could be likened to hyperventilating into a bag full of concrete dust. The mountains in Yangshuo can not be explained in any possible way to do them justice. From a height you soon notice that the small city of Yangshuo is nestled in between the oddly shaped peaks rising up out of the Earth. These mountains stretch on and on for miles in all directions. They look like crazy anthills just waiting to be stomped on.

The mythology behind Yangshuo’s topography goes like this: The Dragon of the Land and the God’s of the air got the shits with each other and the God’s started hurling rocks down to kill the Dragon. These rocks became those crazy mountains.

The Buckland group made us feel really safe in China. They trained us, showed us around and introduced us to some of the cultural strangeness that we would not have found out be ourselves for ages. We made lots of friends here. There were heaps of Kiwi’s, Aussie’s and Canadian’s in Yangshuo and we had a great time exploring together.

Everything in China is so cheap and there are so many fruit markets and stalls to buy almost everything from. Well I thought it was cheap until I realized that everything is actually pretty expensive in Yangshuo because it’s a tourist town. Apparently everywhere in China that’s not a touristy place is as cheap as hell. I am really starting to enjoy the bartering thing. Some prices here are jacked up by 400%, so you offer ¼ of the price and work up from there. My limited Chinese has extended itself into being able to shop. I am learning the number system at the moment.

The mountains and the river Li here are so beautiful and I don’t want to ever leave them…