The journey began early on Saturday the 19th of August. An uneventful train ride was followed by hours of queuing in Heathrow Airport (the foiled UK terror plot had only occurred a week before - baggage checks were still pretty extreme) that left me with just minutes to get myself together and get on the plane to Shanghai. I was lucky enough to get an upgrade (thankyou Jason) so had a seat with plenty of leg-room. We left the UK at around 2pm and arrived in Shanghai at about 8am on Sunday the 20th, China being 8 hours ahead of the UK.
I was transferring at Shanghai, so didn't see any of the city but got some kip before the next flight out to Guilin in Guangxi province, in the south of China. That flight gave me a taste of the amazing scenery that was to await me. I was picked up (eventually) by Owen Buckland, the founder of the agency I was going to be working with and taken by car to Yangshuo, about 1 hour away. He was a little late picking me up cos he'd had a bit of a bump on the way up to Guilin. Driving along those roads, I could see how that may have been possible!! Traffic laws don't really seem to exist here. Drive on the right if you can, but if not, hey it doesn't matter. Just make sure to sound your horn a lot and you'll be just fine...
To be honest it wasn't that bad. Everything just floats gracefully along - car hand-in-hand with lorry, bus with bike, water buffalo with handcart...the speed is all about the same and no-one ever seems close to coming a cropper.
So I arrived in Yangshuo. I was taken to my hotel, given some food and got some much-needed rest. 35 hours on the go. Tough.
The next day was Monday, and I began my training with the Buckland Group. There were about 15-20 of us in my induction class and I soon made some friends with some Canadians and Americans. Not too many Brits out here. Had expected more. Odd. The training lasted a week and was fairly useful. It dealt with problems such as culture shock and also how to apply teaching methods to classes of 70+ kids. 70+. Oh My God. We also had a practice session in a local language school, which went really well. The kids loved us and we had many photos taken afterwards. By this time it was Thursday and some of us were slowly being shipped off to our allocated schools. Before I came here I had almost made up my mind to plump for a school in Shaanxi Province, up to the north, where they speak a more standard version of mandarin. I thought that while I was here I'd definately try and pick up the language so wanted to go somewhere where that would be easiest. However, having spent some time in sub-tropical Yangshuo, and having heard all about how icy the winters get that far north, I changed my mind and decided to try for a school in Hunan Province, just east of Guangxi and Yangshuo. Almost all of the people I had made friends with in Yangshuo were headed there too and I quite liked the idea of being closer to these people - as well as it being a bit warmer!
So, the stage was set. All I had to do then was enjoy all that Yangshuo had to offer, and make the most of it. Nowhere else in China is quite the same. This place is a backpacker's mecca. There are tourists everywhere, and of course, the facilities to cater for them. This means cheap western food, bars, nightlife, pirate dvds and all other kinds of crap that you probably wouldn't find elsewhere. So, with the friends I had made at Buckland, we ate, drank and were merry. More than that we just soaked up the atmosphere and enjoyed the scenery. Loved it.
This part of the world is beautiful. There are these bizarre Karst (some kind of wierd limestone geology) peaks just shooting up out of the ground all over the place, the vegetation is lush, there are butterflies as big as your hand, and it was hot. It didn't stay sunny all the time, but the mist and rain only served to make it all the more enchanting.
Yangshuo was a great place to spend a few days. We had the most fun. Highlights were riding pillion on motorbike taxis to the centre of town every day for just 3 yuan each (no helmets but plenty of buzz) and the barbecue at Buckland with everyone (see pictures), drinking lots of beer then having Jaegerbombs at a bar (never made it to class next morning but hey..).
All this was great and I wouldn't have missed it, but, after a while, most of us began to grow tired of it all and were ready to get out there and start doing what we came here to do - myself included.
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