I'm sitting outside, boiling hot, in Yangshuo, after a hike from Xingping to Yangdi. I was last year in December 2004 and have come back for some internal planning and team building for work and stayed a couple extra days for fun. Its a great place to come, one of the most famous and beautiful regions in the country- in fact today we took a photo that is a replica of that on the 20rmb bank note. only the best gets on a bank note!
What has changed since I was last here? Well last time it was raining and cold and we couldn't find any decent hotels with heating, since heating is rarely bothered with this far south as they only need for heating for a few weeks a year. The heating was-and still-is provided by using an air conditioner to pump hot air. Eventually we found one, the nicest place in town and it was not great. The other options were a handful of hostels and a smattering of awful Chinese hotels. There was a main street that was fun with a bunch of cafes and shops, supplementing the hostels. It was mostly foreigners and young people, though not entirely and I suspect more Chinese would have come in the warmer months after we were there. I recall a couple of small alleys of the main street (called West Street) and not much else. unlucky with the weather it rained whilst we cycled and when we were drifting downstream on a small bamboo boat. But the scenery in the countryside was stunning.
It still is stunning. And as I look out of the bus on my way to the airport I'm still marveling at the scenery. After a fantastic hike today along a river, the only noticeable change in the countryside is the hum of the many small tourist boats that now ply the rivers. A few old women sell fruit along the hiking path, but their very low price and desperation hints at the small numbers of potential customers that come their way. The houses in the villages closer to town near where our hotel is (we're in a lovely place 10 min drive away) do show signs of construction and there are many other hotels dotting the area. I'm sure a lot of them have air conditioners that provide heating now.
In the town itself, a lot has changed. Indeed from some directions the town itself seems to take ages to get into as it now sprawls so much. There are a lot of hotels, but most are still only a handful of floors high. The main street remains pedestrianized though it is now twice as wide to accommodate the insane numbers of people that flow down it in the evenings. Several thousand crowd the street as if a football match has just finished. The main street now has several clubs and plenty of bars. All were doing good business even on a Thursday night. A few nice shops remain though others have been replaced by Chinese food or tourist shops. Most of the nicer shops and cafes have moved into a few side alleys which retain their charm and remind me of the old main street. Unfortunately fewer of those alleys are catering to the foreigners looking for small hostels and small cafes as well as those looking for climbing or biking opportunities with individual operators, and more are catering to those looking for tour agencies or restaurants that can seat 40 outside which dominate the surrounding streets.
I don't begrudge development, nor that most Chinese tour guides seem to prefer taking their groups down hard shoulders of main roads rather than on countryside roads if that saves time to see a particular hill (in fact it's great for keeping many of those small streets quiet). In all consideration it's not too bad. Some of what makes the town of Yangshuo so special still remains on the side streets off the main street, and the countryside remains relatively unspoilt.
So I'm relieved. let those millions of tourists come each year if they're happy crowding a few small stretches of river in their boats, packing into caves and cycling down main roads. That leaves many countryside lanes a beauty to cycle down, plenty of small villages to check out (though no-one comes here for them as there are nicer ones in other parts of the country), some deserted hiking paths and other stretches of river that remain pretty despite the hum of the small boats.
So maybe Chinese tourism development does not need to be a total disaster after all. Yangshuo remains a great place to come (just don't spend too much time on the main street)!
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