February 05, 2007

Welcome to You (Yangshuo)...
Ah, Yangshuo. It's much prettier than the more famous Guilin, and although it's less touristy, it seems that everything is geared towards tourists. I'm not sure that anyone actually lives here -they're either tourists, or tourist touts. The region draws a lot of backpackers, but also a lot of Chinese tourists. It all adds up to high prices, and a lot of (good) Western food.
The scenery around here is just amazing though, and you can almost touch the peaks from the cafes. You can't walk down the streets of the city without someone shouting "Hallo, you wan poscar?" or some other tourist item. But as soon as you get a bike and head out of town, you can be all alone on some path between a tiny village where no one speaks English, and you see more chickens/buffalo than anything else. It's a nice break from the big cities for a few days.

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