The Days Just Zoom By

1/28/2012

To see the photos enlarged just click on them

Intersection of Dai Cui Lu and Cheng Zhong Lu during a lull in traffic

Another rainy day today but it’s

Umbrellas on West Street

supposed to stop for several days beginning tomorrow. That would be nice then I could go for a bike ride. The wet doesn’t seem to stop the Chinese from walking around town in their disposable thin, yellow plastic rain ponchos bought from any street side merchant, or unfurling their numerous umbrellas as they stroll around sometimes stopping to look or even buy.

This morning I left my room early to meet Bi Jian at the People’s Hospital so I could get the impacted ear wax flushed from my right ear. It’s been clogged for about four days, blocking my hearing in that ear and no matter how I tried to flush it out myself I couldn’t get it clear. So, Bi Jian accompanied me this morning to see the doctor. About 10 minutes after we arrived, we left with me having a clear ear canal that I could once again hear through, and an alarming bill of 16 yuan ($2.54)!

Chinese Bujou Stone on West Street standing about 4 meters tall (about 13')

Can you imagine paying that in the US? The last time I had my ear flushed by my doctor in Mendocino it cost about $80 and it took about the same amount of time as here. Best thing was, today is Saturday and we still just went right in with no waiting around for the ENT doctor. He was very professional and efficient as I am sure he has done this procedure a million times since it is the most common ailment seen by Ear, Nose and Throat doctors. It sure is great to hear normally again!

This coming week I have to travel to Guilin (Guee-lin) to renew my 30 day China Visa. First I have to go to the local Yangshuo Police Station on Monday to get the papers that I need to take with me to Guilin Immigration. Then take the 2 hour bus ride to Guilin on Thursday morning, turn in the papers, pay the $150 American Visa fees (all other nationalities pay $40), and then go back to Guilin a week later to pick up my Visa renewal. Boy, they sure make it easy!

2/1/2012

Seems like a lot has happened in the past few days. But, that is relative to each of us.

Time stands still for some on West Street

Sunday was still somewhat rainy so I spent most of the day writing on my story and towards 5pm I strolled out into the dusk for a walk through the crowds on West St and to snap some photos. I was experimenting with long exposures while people walked past me. Some of the shots I really liked. The colors on the streets in the evening are extremely vivid and the sounds and smells equal the saturation of the colors. I enjoy listening to people speak in Putonghua as it sounds like singing to me, but mostly when the

Speed is Relative to Each of Us

women speak. The men have a more harsh, loud tone to their words and even if they are just talking about their day it sounds like they are arguing or chastising someone for their imagined mistake.

While having dinner at Back Street Cafe that evening I met Zhou Jing, or “Mirror” as she calls herself in English. She is a very intelligent, English speaking student from Xiemen. A small island city on the coast about 400 Km northeast of Hong Kong. It sits directly across from Taiwan.

Justin & Zhou Jing during our Bike Ride

Anyway, we decided to meet the next morning at breakfast and rent bikes. She showed up with a friend she met at her hostel, a tall, slim Aussie named Justin. A great guy who is an electromechanical engineer. He works for a huge corporation named ABB, headquartered out of Baden, Switzerland. They specialize in Electrical Efficiency and one of their subsidiaries makes industrial robots. Justin has been working with that subsidiary in Shanghai the past four months and is now traveling around China before he heads back to Australia to work at the ABB office in Brisbane.

Yulong River from the Bridge on the way to Moon Hill

We headed out across the Li River but soon decided that the road was way to crowded and turned back around towards Yangshuo. On the way we took a different, less used road that went by the river front. At one point we were peddling

Zhou Jing with a halo of Moon Hill

through a rutted, muddy dirt road hoping none of us got stuck. As long as we kept moving we were fine. After we crossed back over the bridge Justin said he had to finish up some work and headed back to the hostel while Zhou Jing and I turned south toward Moon Hill. Neither of us had seen the big hole in the mountain. We rode south the 7 Km to Butterfly Cave, stopping for a rest room break and continued on the 5 Km to Moon Hill. We stopped to take photos of the bamboo rafts from the bridge that crossed the scenic Yulong River. When we arrived the mountain rose high above us in the near distance. I could see it would be quite a walk from the parking lot. Luckily, a couple of American rock climbers had arranged in the mid ’90’s for the climb up to be set with a rock stairway so more people could make

Climbing the Innumerable Steps to the Top of Moon Hill

the trek and enjoy the view. Zhou Jing and I still stopped several times to rest and take pictures. We fooled around with our photos in attempts to portray the hill in the distance in different POV’s, but they all were a little silly. We passed several people resting on their way up and others making the casual walk down. We repeatedly marveled aloud at the task of placing all the stone steps and the difficulty in transporting them up some of the steeper sections of the hillside.

At the top, several people sat around and rested from the climb. While we sat there a weathered, little 70 year old lady asked us if we wanted to buy Coca Cola or tea, which we declined. She then showed me her pack of postcards and persisted in her attempts to convince me to purchase a pack. Having just walked the trail up and realizing she does it everyday I could not turn down her request that I buy

The Beautiful 70 year old Lady who sells Cokes, Tea and Postcards

a pack. Through her silver teeth she told us she lives near the bottom of the hill and makes her living buy selling her drinks and cards. Her oldest son lives and works in the city but does not help her and her youngest son who lives with her. Her youngest son just lost the eyesight in one of his eyes and now she is afraid he will not be able to be married because no women would want a man who could only see out of one eye. Considering her age I had to wonder how old her youngest son was and why he had not married many years ago. I asked if I could take her picture because she looked so beautiful and she kept telling me she was no longer beautiful but proceeded to pose for me anyway. I told her I thought she was very beautiful. She laughed and told us other stories about her life while we regained our

View from Moon Hill looking back the way we Climbed Up

breath. We eventually headed up through the hole to the highest viewpoint where we could see the valley that we had ridden through and its surrounding Karst. As soon as we made it to the high viewpoint it seemed everyone else decided to come up there too so

Fooling around with Zhou Jing at the top of Moon Hill

we waited until everyone left so we could take some self-timed photos. We both voiced our desire for the sky to be clear and blue instead of the persistent light gray haze of clouds. But, not much we could do about that. Our walk down was quick in comparison to the other direction. Before we knew it we were back on our bikes heading toward Yangshuo.

Justin, Jing and I met for dinner that night and talked about our lives and how nice it was to have met each other and spend some time together. Zhou Jing is writing a Blog about her travels but of course it is in Putonghua. She actually has two blogs, one for writing and the other just for photos.

The first Village I explored to find a way across the Hills to no Avail

We all spent the next day doing our separate adventures. Justin just rode around town after working again on the work he had to finish. Jing repacked her backpack in preparation for her departure that night

Picking and Packing Oranges along the Li River

for the bus to Nanning on her way to Vietnam. She spent the afternoon reading in a street side cafe. I, on the other hand, had to go to the Yangshuo Police Station to secure my papers for Renewing my Visa for another 30 days. While getting copies of the application papers made at an English School nearby the school director, Simon offered me a private tutoring job. He is supposed to get in touch with me about it but I haven’t heard anything yet. I might go by there today on my walk and see if he has any news for me.

Rows of Orange Trees under Plastic. These are everywhere on the hillsides

Since it was as close to a warm, sunny day as I have seen since my arrival in Yangshuo, I rented a bike and headed off north along the Li River determined to find a route across the hills, through the many villages over to Pantao Lu. My first route took me as far as I could go along the river road that ended in a hillside village in which I could not find a road that exited except for the way I came in. I retraced my route

Plastic Bags of Trash litter many streams in rural China like it will just Disappear

back to a “Y” in the road and took the road west I did not take before. After traveling through a couple of villages I eventually found a road up and over a low pass that took me to the north end of Cheng Zhong Lu. I had walked up that way with Dai Dan and Sisi a few days before and so I set out the 7Km toward the village of Gao Zhou to see if I could make it back to the river on this road. But, after riding past the village about more 3 Km the road turned muddy and again I decided to retrace my steps. One thing that is a shame about the rural sections of China, the villagers do not care much where the trash goes. They just toss it down wherever they are and in absence of any community dump they dump it in the nearest river or stream. Just on the other side of the bridge that I took this picture, a woman was washing her clothes, and I am sure down stream a little bit another woman was washing her clothes. The government really needs to educate the villagers about proper disposal of trash. I understand it is better than it was but they still have a long way to go. I have seen kids and adults just toss whatever they are carrying down on the sidewalks, street, hallways, wherever they are.

The third village I explored trying to find the illusive road across the hills to Pantao Lu

At the intersection to Gao Zhou I again turned west towards what I figured would have to be in the direction of Pantao Lu. It seemed like a well traveled road so I peddled on. Passing through a few villages I came to an intersection. One way led to Gao Guang 1.6 Km ahead and the other direction led to Freeland, another 12 Km. I opted for Gao Guang and felt it was a good decision after peddling through the village and onward another 7 or 8 Km until the one lane, cement road gradually narrowed and suddenly turned into a dirt trail that was obviously routinely used by motorcycles. As I stood there

Right after the one lane cement road turned into a one vehicle muddy trail

considering whether to continue a motorcycle with a passenger buzzed by me and so I decide to follow them. Onward I rode on the edge of a hill past small homes and rice fields until the trail widened to a dirt road but soon degraded into a wet, rut filled mud track. I stopped and surveyed any way to maneuver around the mud and just as I was about to attempt it another motorcycle pulled up and proceeded to traverse the long length of mud, ruts and puddles. Almost immediately he lost traction and started slipping sideways and whenever he would stop to right his direction his back wheel would just spin in the mud rut. It was then that I decided to once again turn around and retrace my trail back to the Cheng Zhong Lu/Gao Zhou intersection and then continue on into Yangshuo. I decided I had done enough exploring for the day. I must have ridden at least 50 Km or about 32 miles.

Zhou Jing messaged me on Skype when I was back home and we decided to meet with Justin and have dinner before they had to leave on the bus to Guilin at 8pm. Justin was on his way to Xi’an to see the Terra Cotta warriors and Jing was beginning the first leg of her trek to Vietnam.

Dual Face Karst looking in opposite directions

When I returned to Back Street Cafe Gemma was sitting around the charcoal fire with a few other women who had been having dinner earlier. They invited me to sit down with them and we spent the evening discussing several topics of interest including, business, politics, marriage, women in modern China, traveling, etc. One lady, Tao Li Hua is a Chinese Language Professor at the University in Hangzhou near Shanghai and her friend, Bian San San is a business woman who owns and operates a wholesale lighting company in Hangzhou. Earlier that day San San had her iPhone stolen out of her coat pocket on West Street. It had cost her 6,500 Yuan (RMB) or about $1,030 US, most of which is extra taxes in tariffs and import customs fees. But, what a price gouge! Needless to say she was a little bummed about it but tried not to let it affect her evening. The third woman is a student backpack traveler during the holiday with a huge pack that looked almost as big as her, being a person of small stature. I had meet her two nights before when I met Zhou Jing. All three women were very congenial, modern in their thinking (none of them want to get married) and contentedly independent. The professor is coming to the US in July and August of this year so I invited her to visit Mendocino.

2/2/2012

Heading to Guilin this morning at 8:45 to turn in my Visa extension papers at the Chinese Immigration office, then back again in a week to pick up the approved Visa. It’s been raining all night. So, leaving Back Street for a day long excursion. Trip to Guilin in the next update!

PS: As I sit here in the Back Street Cafe putting the finishing touches on this update, we have a full house. One table has two Americans and an Australian discussing all the countries they’ve visited while speaking an example of the language of that country, if they know it. The Aussie seems to speak several languages and has apparently been to many countries. He gets deals on the airlines so he travels a lot. At another table are four chain smoking Deutschlanders (at least they asked first if the rest of us cared if they smoked) and the third table is a threesome of female Hungarians. Interesting to overhear some of the conversations. Occasionally the Europeans lapse into English for some reason, and I get a glimpse of what they are discussing. Yangshuo is definitely an International backpacker destination.