Arrival in YangShuo

At 5:45 a.m. I woke to the sound of the boys horsing around in the cabin next to mine. Guess I’m getting up. It hadn’t exactly been a sleep-filled night anyway. I’m not used to sleeping on a bed that moves. So much for Julie’s claim that I can sleep anywhere, anytime.

At 6:30 a.m. we arrived in the city of Gui Lin. Just outside the train station our charter bus and driver were waiting for us. We loaded our bulging backpacks and wheeled suitcases into the underbelly of the bus. It was a short, thirty-minute bus ride to the village of Yangshuo.

For the next week, we would be staying in the Snow Lion Inn, a relatively new thirty-room inn built in the Chinese style but with modern conveniences: western-style toilets, air conditioning, and heat.

All of China was hit by a cold snap the week we were in YangShou. The night time temperatures unseasonably dropped to just above freezing. The individual guest rooms may have had heat, but the lobby, the hallways and the dining room did not. The keepers of the inn kept the big double front doors open all day and the hotel staff stayed bundled up in their winter coats.

Our students slept two to a room. Teachers each had their own rooms. Upon our arrival, we gave the kids just enough time to run their suitcases up to their rooms and then it was time for a quick breakfast in the hotel dining room. The buffet breakfast consisted of toast, scrambled eggs, watermelon juice, bacon, Chinese sticky buns, and Chinese-style noodles.

We had to keep things moving along because we were scheduled to hike up Moon Hill later that morning.

-Jack

Picture: Phil our fearless guide from Dragonfly