My First Day in China

I’d not really made a plan for my trip to China. I had been hoping to travel overland in to Tibet from Nepal. When I first got to Nepal this would have been possible, although I would have had to go as part of a tour group and be with a guide at all times. Then nearer to the time I hoped to head on, the Chinese government changed their rules, making it only possible visit Tibet in groups of five people who all had to be of the same nationality. With the help of travel companies in Kathmandu I nearly had a group of four other English people to visit Tibet with. Then due to self immolations within Tibet, the Chinese government decided to stop tourist visiting all together. They of course would not like the world to see monks setting themselves on fire in protest at what is happening to them and their country.

I had ideas about where I wanted to go when I reached China, but as I wasn’t sure when I wanted to go where or whether I’d fancy staying a day or so in Guilin, the town I was flying in to, I thought I’d just wait and see what happened when I arrived. And what happened when I arrived was that I joined a Chinese tour group for the day.

I made a new friend on the plane who was going to be visiting her relatives in China. And as most Chinese people seem to like to do, they had organised their trip to be part of a tour group. We were greeted by their guide, who like all guides here was holding high a flag so none of his group would be getting lost. Everyone was extremely nice to me and I was immediately invited to join their tour free of charge. With no other plans I decided to accept the invite and kept my eyes intently on the flag.

We spent the day visiting parks and caves. Some I was sneaked into for free and others I had to pay for but was given a discount. I have found that in China whatever you want to do, if you do it officially, then you have to pay and you have to pay quite a lot. Even with my free entry and discounts the cost of my day was getting a bit much, and so when the tour group checked in to their rather expensive hotel I declined the offer of joining them and decided to move on alone.

Having seen far more of Guilin than I’d anticipated I decided to try and leave that day and go to a little town called Yangshuo. I was instructed that I would need to get a taxi to the bus station and the guide and my friends relatives wrote down the name of the bus station in Chinese. Out on the street however, I realised I had a bit of a problem. I had no idea how to get a taxi when there weren’t any taxis anywhere to be seen. So as there really weren’t any taxis anywhere to be seen, I set off on foot in the direction I thought it most likely the bus station would be in. I then began to ask anyone I passed if they could help me. Most people couldn’t help me, because most people couldn’t speak any English at all and were too concerned about this to even attempt communicating with me. Eventually though I found the man I needed who pointed out some guys on motorbikes, told one of them where I wanted to go and helped me agree on the price. And the next thing I was riding on the back of one of the bikes, sheltered from the sun by a huge attached umbrella, and then I was at the bus station and directed to my bus thanks to the help of my guidebook writing the place names in Chinese.

At Yangshou after things not looking all that good, my luck picked right back up again. When I got off the bus I again asked many people without success where I could find a hostel. People either just couldn’t understand me and I of course couldn’t understand them, or they pointed me in one direction and then the next person to direct me would point me in another direction. It seemed to be true that hardly anyone in at least this part of China could speak English. But again after nearing desperation, I eventually found just the man I needed and he pointed me in the right direction. Then I saw some other tourists who showed me the way right to the hostel I ended up staying in. Not only was it cheap, but I had the whole dorm to myself with my own massive bed with white duvet and pillows, my own clean towel, my own bathroom with my own free travel pack of toiletries, my own TV, and even my own free toilet paper – luxury!