Lots of bloggable things happened this week, but no time to blog so far… Some things I wanted to write about, but did not find the time for yet:
– Ho-Pin Tung’s Formula 3 championship (in a car with game.com.cn on it)
– Gary Wang (Tudou‘s CEO) who is sudddenly becoming a famous Chinese writer
– A cool big band jazz concert with Rolf Becker in the Grand Hyatt last night
– Several anecdotes about a large group of Dutch tourists (members of Dutch broadcasting station the Tros) who are on a so-called ‘members tour’ in China with Dutch singer Jantje Smit. This whole thrip will be broadcasted in December.

At lunch today (a 5-minute break for a hamburger at McDonalds – shame on me) I was sitting in front of the window of the fast-food outlet in Xujiahui, and noticed several men in front of a bakery store that were approached by people with pieces of paper and who then exchanged the paper for money. I found it a bit strange, so decided to check it out after finishing the greasy meal.

Turns out that the bakery is a mooncake outlet, and people can go there to exchange a coupon for mooncakes. Before the moon festival (in 2 weeks) companies often give these coupons to employees as a token of appreciation. The thing is, many people either do not like mooncakes (like me) or prefer to get some money instead. And because Chinese are all business people, a trade automatically developed. In front of these stores you can now exchange the coupons for hard Chinese renminbi’s, and the traders then re-sell the coupons to clients entering the store. This entrepreneurial spirit is why I love to live and work in the The Middle Kingdom.

As I mentioned before on this blog, I do not like it very much when people use personalized “ringtones”. This means that you are forced to listen to the favourite song of the person you are calling, instead of the traditional beeps. More and more people are using this service, because China Mobile is actively pushing the product.

But things seem to be getting worse according to Pacific Epoch. According to them, a Chinese WAP site recently launched a service that allows users to select a tone or song that will play in the background of their mobile phone conversations. This means that when you call this person, both the subscriber to the service and the person they are talking to will hear the song… I have not experienced this yet, but I can only imagine that it is extremely annoying to have a song playing when you are trying to have a serious conversation. It may become popular among high school students, but I hope that the general population will stay away from it. Does such a service exist outside China already?

One thing I did not understand about Yangshuo, is that there is no decent map of the city and (especially) the countryside around it. There is a map that is widely sold, which shows the main attractions around the city, but that map only has a few roads on it and the scale is not correct. Because there are hundreds or maybe even thousands of tourists every day in Yangshuo I immediately saw a small business opportunity.

If I would have had time I would base myself in Yangshuo for a few weeks, buy a bike, a gps receiver and all currently available maps and come up with a new, good one myself. The only thing you need for this is time, not money. And who have time and no money? The backpackers in Yangshuo. Many of them stay here for weeks, not doing too much, except for hiking or biking in the countryside and enjoying a cold beer at night. This could easily be combined with making a good map in my opinion.

And how can you make money with it? Simple. First approach all of the hotels, restaurants and bars with a good proposal, and ask if they want to put an ad on the back of your map for a small amount of money. Get some cash upfront from them for this to get started. After the map is ready, don’t only sell it through outlets in Yangshuo, but get someone to sell it to the tour groups before they arrive in Yangshuo (so either on the bus or on the boat), nobody is doing that yet. Also sell it though hotels and retail outlets in Guilin. Say that you price your map at RMB 5 (which is lower than the current map), you will need 1-2 RMB to print the map. Give another 1-2 RMB to the person that sells the map (you could even get hawkers to do this), and keep the remaining 1-3 RMB. It’s not a multi-million dollar business, but it’s a nice way to earn some extra cash while travelling around China. And you would make a lot of tourists happy: tourists that now get lost on their bikes in the rice fields around Yangshuo.

In case you are interested, I put some of the pictures we took last week in Guilin and Yangshuo online. I created a set that can be viewed here. If you have never been to these places, take a look and you’ll understand why I think this is one of the nicest areas in China.

Yangshuo is great for outdoor sports, and running is one of them. Except for the karst mountains the landscape is nearly flat, so you can do some great long distance runs here. Because the locals are used to foreigners this was the first time I did an outside run in China without hearing anyone scream “Laowai” (foreigner) at me. Quite nice for a change. But used to runners they are not yet here: this morning I was running along the Ju Long river, about 7 km outside Yangshuo, when a farmer on a motorbike passed me. He looked over his shoulder, and asked me whether my bike broke down. Why would you otherwise run? I told him I am just running for fun, something he did not understand, because he offered me a ride on the back of his motorbike back to town. I kindly refused.

But two days ago I actually did take a motorbike back to Yangshuo. I had been running for about 45 minutes, looking for a bridge over the river to get back to Yangshuo, but could not find one. I realized my plan to be back in the hotel after about one hour would not be possible, even if I would run back over the same path. Then I met some men playing cards on the river bank. I asked them if there was a taxi around, and then one of them offered me a ride back on his motorbike for 30 RMB. That was a bit steep, but after some negotiations we ended at 10 RMB. Still a bit high, but I realized my bargaining position was not optimal. A nice way to see the country side, by the way. But a bit cold right after running, and not having anything else to wear for the ride on the back of the bike.

If you are a long-distance runner and visit Yangshuo I have one run you should try. Start is in the center of town, on Xi Jie (West Street). At the end of Xi Jie go south (direction of Banyan Tree and Moon Hill). Continue the main road until you get to a bridge over the Ju Long river (about 6 km). Just before the bridge there is a dirt road on the right side. Take this road, it follows the river and has great views to the mountains on both sides. At a certain point the track hits a paved road (after about 6 km, at Jima village). Take a right here and run the approximately 3 km back to Yangshuo. Early in the morning is the best time for this run, because then it’s still quiet. Around 8:30 you will start to see more and more bike riders, especially on weekends when it almost gets crowded with bike riding tour groups. And if you are not a runner, just rent a bike and ride the route – that’s fun as well, and probably less tiring.

After a couple of days in Guilin we took a boat to Yangshuo. There is no way to rent a private boat, you have to go on a boat that is full of tour groups. And they are quite expensive, the boat we took was a cool RMB 420 per person. But that’s the way it is when a city discovers tourists, and I am sure prices will keep on rising. Why? Because the boat trip is absolutely stunning, and it is one of the things that you must have done at least once if you visit this part of China. If you have the chance to go here, do it.

Yangshuo itself has become pretty touristic as well. More tour groups than backpackers nowadays, but it still has the laid-back feeling. One of the very few places in China where East truly meets West, and where the Chinese go to look at the foreigners, instead of the other way around. To describe it in terms of other places, a mix of Ubud (Bali), Hanoi (Vietnam) and Lang Kwai Fong (the bar street in HK), maybe with a bit of Houhai (Beijing) thrown in.

The best time is early morning, when the tour groups from Guilin have not arrived yet. Having a coffee and a banana pancake in an almost deserted Xi Jie (West Street) is very relaxing. Around 1 PM the place becomes alive when the first boats from Glin arrive, and it does not get quiet anymore until late at night. Lots of bars with cheap beer and wine, and decent (but not great) food.

But there is much more to do than just relax with a good cup of coffee or a beer. I did not bring a Lonely Planet, but that did not matter much. In every bar you find people with the latest information about what you should (and should not) do. What you should absolutely do is rent a bike. A 18-speed mountain bike sets you back only 5 RMB, a normal bike is double the price (this is something I cannot explain – isn’t a mountain bike much more expensive?). But you get what you pay for, because my mountain bike broke down 7 km out of town (with a broken back axis – never happened to me before). Luckily my wife had saved the phone number of the bike shop in her phone, so the owner could pick us up.

You can buy a local map, but don’t depend on it too much. The map is not very accurate, and sometimes roads are just completely missing. But if you don’t mind turning back every now and then, it is a good help. Another solution is to rent a personal guide (for between 50-100 RMB per day) who will ride with you and show you the hidden gems of the Yangshuo countryside. The must see’s: some of the old bridges over the Yulong river, the beatiful scenery with rice fields in the foreground and mountains in the background, and the moon hill (a mountain with a hole in it in the shape of the moon, you can climb to the top in about 20 minutes). If you want to do some climbing or cave exploration this is also the right place.

There are plenty of hotels in Yangshuo, from backpacker hostels for 30 RMB per night, to the 4-star Paradise Resort. We stayed at the Yangshuo Regency with a top location (at the end of Xi Jie), a great view from our balcony, and an unbelievably huge king-size bed. I can recommend this hotel, but make sure you get a renovated room (right now that means a first floor room, the old ones do not get good reviews, but they will be renovated soon), and make sure it is on the Xi Jie side of the hotel, otherwise you won’t have a balcony, nor a view of the mountains. We pay RMB 298 per night (listed price is over RMB 600 but nobody pays that), a very good price for this kind of room.

If you do not want to spend time in Guilin, you can also take a taxi from the airport directly to Yangshuo. This should cost you around RMB 200, and takes about 90 minutes. Taxi vans in Yangshuo can be rented for about 30-40 RMB per hour, for trips into the countryside.

One of the main attractions in and around Guilin are the karst stone formations. These mountains, that pop out of a mainly flat landscape, contain many caves and some of these can be explored.

Having visited a fair share of caves in my life, but mainly in Europe, the caves here surprised me a bit. All of the ones that can be visited are lighted in all colors of the rainbow! Furthermore, the Chinese visitors have to be entertained, so all kinds of structures that look like an animal, plant or person are given a name. They then put a (lighted) sign in front of the structure, and the tour guide will point out the shape and where the head, ears, eyes etc. are. Some shapes that are not very clear are even helped a bit, by putting an eye on it or so… The Chinese tour groups love it.

This whole namegiving of structures is not my thing, but I do like the lighting, it gives the cave a very different look, and it makes for beautiful pictures. We visited several caves over the past days, but the best one by far is the Crown Cave, about 40 kilometer outside Guilin (you also pass it by boat between Guilin and Yangshuo). If you have time, go there. It’s totally worth it (taxi will cost you about RMB 200 roundtrip, based on the meter). But be warned, because sometimes you wonder whether you are in a cave or in Disneyland.

It starts already at the entrance. You don’t walk into the cave, but ride there yourself on an electric slide. It’s a 10-minute ride through the rice fields before you enter the mountain, and the last 200 meters you ride through the cave itself. At the end tour guides are waiting to take you through the mountain. Normally you have to go in a big group, but I did not like that idea, so we asked for a private guide. Although at first this was not possible, a bit of money goes a long way in China and we managed to get one.

The cave tour itself takes about two hours, but without a group holding you up you can do it in about one hour. Which was actually good, because I had to do a radio interview with a Dutch radio station later that afternoon, and needed to get out of the cave on time in order to get a mobile phone connection. The cave was fantastic, probably the best I have ever been to. It seems not many independently traveling foreigners go here (according to our tour guide), because it is too far from both Guilin and Yangshuo, and foreign tours normally do not include it either. This is a shame, it is so much more better than the Reed Fluut Cave (Chinglish for Red Flute?) or the Seven Star Cave where you see most of the foreigners.

OK, it is sometimes more than Disneyland than a authentic cave, but that’s part of the experience. Ever taken a glass elevator inside a cave? Here you can do it. A ride on a wooden raft on a subterrean river in total darkness? It’s all included. And even an electric train ride, that was taken right out of Disneyland. Including dance performances that you pass during the train ride! But for me the highlights were a huge ‘hall’ inside the cave where according to our guide 30,000 people would fit in, and a beautiful waterfall. What was less nice is the 1000-year old turtle (do turtles really get that old? Did not check it yet) next to the waterfall, that was touched by all tourists. The guide said that the turtle did not mind, because ‘he is used to it’. Right…

Pictures of the cave will be on my Flickr account soon (no way to upload them here, speeds are incredibly slow).

As I already noted in my post about our first day in Guilin, taxi drivers are quite commercial here. Every time we take a taxi the driver starts to talk with us, and every time he or she (many female drivers here) tries to sell us tickets or wants to drive us to another tourist location.

I am not exactly sure how it works, but in the meantime I have figured out that there is something behind all of this. This morning we drove to the Seven Stars Cave, close to downtown Guilin, when the driver asked us to go to a different window to get a piece of paper for him to show that he took us here. Upon doing that the ride was for free! Yesterday we had a similar experience with a taxi driver that also needed a paper (for points, she told us – we did not get a free ride though). It seems that the some organization awards drivers that bring tourists to certain locations, and awards them more than the cost of the ride. Nice for the drivers, but a a pain for tourists who now have to listen to sales pitches every time they take a taxi. But luckily not many tourists take taxi’s here, as most are either here on group tours (both the Chinese and the foreigners!), or are backpackers that normally don’t take taxis.