Finally we found a place in China that is relaxing, easy to get around and has all sorts of good food. Unfortunately, it is about as much "real" China as Cancun is "real" Mexico or Las Vegas is "real" America. But, hey, "real" China was kicking our butts so we were more than ready for the relief that Yangshuo in the Guangxi province offered us.

Who really knows how backpacker, tourist hub towns get started, but Yangshuo does boast beautiful mountain scenery, a good location on the Lijiang River and it's about an hour south of Guilin, which has an airport. Apparently, you figure in all these factors and then throw in some enterprising Chinese and you end up with a travelers enclave.

In this small city (by Chinese standards) there are probably 30 travel agencies all selling the same packages, 100 restaurants all serving the same mix of Chinese and Western foods and 50 hostels all with the same amenities. In China, if something works, you stick to it. Which is why next to our hostel you'll find the Hard Rock Cafe, which of course has nothing to do with ,the Hard Rock, but that's an issue for the lawyers. The Chinese are not too concerned about things like copyright laws.

The local restaurants, which all feature English names, have essentially mirror menus of each other. The menus tend to run around 30 pages long and include an index. If you want to stick to the local food there are noodle dishes, rice dishes, fish dishes and hotpot dishes that feature everything from chicken and pork to snake and pigeon. If you want Western fare, they all serve spaghetti, hamburgers, pizza, apple pie and chocolate cake. Of course, these all need to be ordered with a flexible attitude. As a fellow traveler put it, "It's like they just don't totally get how to make the food. You have given them the entire recipe to chocolate cake and at the last minute they'll throw something very Chinese into the mix." For instance, we ordered pizza that was supposed to have ham, onions, beef and cheese. It came with beef, onions, Spam, a melted Velveeta-like substance and lettuce. No tomato sauce and the crust was more of a pastry than a pizza dough.

We did take the opportunity to do one of the touristy things of Yangshuo. We rented some bicycles and went into the country side with a local named Sam (there are lots of Sams in China) who works at our hotel and moonlights as a guide. He took us to a local mountain called Moon Hill and left us to climb it while he went to the local village where his parents live. The climb nearly killed me, but luckily two local women attached themselves as unrequested guides and offered to sell us drinks about every 20 feet up the mountain. At the top I eventually got them to speak to us as people and not just tourists by trying to practice my Mandarin on them. Still, it was obvious that we were customers first and fellow humans second to them. That's the main frustration with China. After the climb we met back with Sam and his family prepared us a delicious dinner. The bike ride let us see what you think of China as actually being. Endless rice fields, oxen and dogs roaming about free and the people enduring the hard life that makes such wonderful postcard images. Of course, this is only a part of the real China and the unending construction of Guangzhuo and sprawl of Guilin are just as real, but not nearly as pleasant.

All in all, Yangshuo has been a nice oasis amidst the insanity of China. We're here one more night and then we're heading to Guilin to catch a plane to Kunming in the Yunnan province. Kunming is another large city with over 6 million people according to the guidebook. We plan on staying there a few days while we arrange for our Laos visa. From there we'll wander some of the cities of Yunnan. In case it hasn't been made clear, we're so far not very big fans of China, but from everything we've heard and read, the Yunnan province is a totally different feel so we're keeping our fingers crossed.

For now, we'll enjoy the remainder of our respite before we return to the real world.

-- Shawn