Well, it's a little bit warmer...

...not really warm, but above freezing, and the sun is out today, a
very welcome relief after several days of greyness.

Now I'm travelling with Shannon, a friend from the course (did I say
that before?) and we're in Yangshuo, in the southern province of
Guanxi. Yangshuo is really small (by Chinese standards) and probably
won't show up on most maps, but it's pretty much due south of Guilin,
the provincial capital. We were up there for a couple days, and came
down yesterday because we were sick of being in cities and the
electricity in our hostel died.

The hostel itself was a cool enough place, sort of set back a little
into alleys opposite the train station, little shops and laundry
hanging and walls all around, felt rather like a kung-fu movie could
break out at any moment. Still it was comfortable place inside,
friendly staff and cheap internet, although the beds weren't much more
than a thick pad of gauze over plywood and it only had squatter
toilets.

The city itself was pleasant enough too, much friendlier, more
likeable than Shanghai. A river ran through it, and it had some
attractive walking paths set up along there, as well as an extensive
pedestrian section. Yesterday morning we walked to a hill at the
south end of town and found a park there. The hill had some caves,
some of which were little shrines and some of which were just places
to look into. There were steps and paths up to a pavillion on the
saddle between the two peaks. From there we were able to do a little
climbing on an outcropping just beyond the pavillion on the back side
of the hill. It wasn't hard, but a few places harder than they should
be because that area had so much traffic that parts of the rock were
worn smooth and slippery. Tried going up one of the peaks, but could
only get so far before equipment became very advisable for continued
upwardsness.

The hills in this area are classic Chinese images, tall, immediate,
running along the river, covered with trees and bushes, made of karst
(not quite sure what that means, geology majors?), very striking,
picturesque. Shannon and I both like the area, although the
touristy-ness of Yangshuo gets tiresome fast. There are more white
faces here, at least percentage-wise, than anywhere else in China,
which of course draws even more people trying to sell stuff to you,
overpricing on most of the food, all that. And then, because it's
something people want to do, it's really easy to find cooking or
taichi or whatever lessons, which isn't really all that interesting
when everyone's trying to sell it to you, when you're always afraid of
getting ripped off. More than enough people speak adequate English,
you can get whatever kind of food you want, almost, more variety than
anywhere else outside the largest, most cosmopolitan cities, and
there's enough competition among the hotels, especially this time of
year, that the room rates are all low. And they pretty much all have
to provide each room with a color TV of its own to stay competitive!
It's all kind of ridiculous. A nice change, sort of, and an amazing
part of the country, which is why people are here, but not for me for
much longer.

Although I like it better than Shanghai, which was just way too big
city. Some fun places to look around, but I'm still not sure what the
attraction of big cities is. We went out to a bar/club the first
night there (just before I was sick), which is fun occasionally, but
not really something that holds my continued interest.

By New Year's Eve both Jeremy and Brian (two of the other students,
with whom we'd gone to Shanghai) had left for Hong Kong and Beijing
respectively, so Shannon and I went out with a couple of girls also
staying in the hostel that he'd met. Actually, he'd met one of them,
Chantelle, from New York, and walked around the city with her while
I'd lain in bed and done a little e-mail and job searching. Her
friend, Ester, had a nasty cold of her own and had also spent the day
recovering, so it kind of worked out. They're both going to school in
southern CA somewhere and were visiting China with her friend over
winter break.

Anyway, we were going to go to the Oriental Pearl Tower for drinks,
not that I was up for drinking much besides OJ or water, (a newish,
tall tower, overlooks the river, cool, will post pictures) but, of
course, the bar wasn't open to the public on New Year's Eve. So we
walked over to the Hyatt, a very cool looking building nearby,
navigated our way up to the hotel lobby on the 54th floor, from there
went down to the 53rd to a small bar (the big one on the 88th floor
was reserved for a special, 1000RMB ($120ish)/head dinner). It was,
unsurprisingly, way too expensive, but we did get to look out at the
view briefly.

So we went back to an area we knew a little better, found a restaurant
and were immediately whisked up to a private room, 8-seat table with a
lazy susan, entirely unnecessary, but seems kind of typical for nicer
restaurants when dealing with Western customers. The food we got was
a little spicier than we'd expected, but it was edible and stayed
down. Ester and I still weren't feeling great, but were cajoled into
staying out.

We went to Shanghai Times Square, which is one of the few things in
Shanghai that is significantly less impressive than its New York
counterpart. Nowhere near the neon (very unusual for China, they like
their bright, colorful signs here), no confetti, no really high
buildings surrounding, no Dick Clark... That, and the square itself,
and the stage where a show seemed to be going on, were cordoned off by
the Shanghai police. We, and thousands of other onlookers were trying
to find a way around, to no avail.

Eventually we agreed to just stay in the big crowd in the street.
Then, while we were innocently standing there, everyone started
pushing forward and then the people in front got pushed back by the
cops, then everyone pushed forward again... A few people made it
through that first time, although I think most of them were brought
back. And then Chantelle kept dragging us closer to the front to try
to see better. I really had no interest in getting shoved into those
cops, but kept going for a while.

Then the people started pushing again. We tried to work our way over
to the side of the street. I made it to shelter by a garbage can (one
of those fixed municipal ones) and then a lot of people broke through
and started running for the crowd by the stage. They made it, and I
thought the others had made it through too. Eventually the line was
fixed and then a bunch of younger guys wearing army green peacoats
came in to reinforce it, so I just stood where I was for the countdown
and all that. Some fireworks, but nothing huge. As the crowd began
to disperse I saw the rest of our group nearby trying to get my
attention, so joined them and we left.

By the time we got out of the crowds, all taxis were occupied, so we
just started trudging back towards the hostel. Eventually we got far
enough out that taxis who'd already dropped people off were coming
back, which was a pleasant relief from them long walk that otherwise
awaited.

The next day Shannon and I went out to look around, get food, etc.
Ended up going to the aquarium, which was very cool. At first it
looked like tourist/Western prices and we almost didn't go in, but it
turned out to be worth it, some very cool exhibits, weird animals (I
saw a giant salamander!), all that. Had dinner, talked with the guys
at the hostel about getting train tickets to Guilin, which they took
care of the following morning. Did I write then? Checked sent mail,
yes I did, so won't repeat self.

Another thing about Yangshuo, a lot of the restaurants and bars have a
computer for free internet for customers. It's pretty cool.
Literally as well, this place isn't heated and my hands aren't working
so well now. Need to warm up.