Trip to Yangshuo, China

Having four days to kill for Christmas, I decided quite out of nowhere to go to Yangshuo for the holidays. I didn't have much planned for the trip. I just wanted to get away and chill a bit, and enjoy the scenery. Knowing Yangshuo for its climbing walls and my friend who's a keen climber, I brought along my climbing gear despite not having climbed myself for over two years.

I brought my backpack to work and hid it in a colleague's room during the day. I had to take the cargo lift in order to stay inconspicuous. At 4pm, I picked up my backpack and set off for the train. I first took the train to Lo Wu, where I met up with my friend and other climbers, and then changed trains in Shenzhen to Guilin. It was my first time taking a sleeper train and it was a neat experience. It was reasonably comfortable. The train departed at close to 6pm and arrived in Guilin at around 7:30am. Then we took the bus and arrived at Yangshuo at around 9:30am. We checked in to our rooms at the guesthouse and set off for some climbing.

It was chilly in Yangshuo, but the afternoon sun kept us nice and warm. We could even climb in our short-sleeve tees. But that happened only on the first day. For the rest of the trip there were always drizzles and the sun was nowhere in sight. The temperature was probably in the tens during the day and below ten in the evening.

We climbed 4 different walls on the four days: Jidan Shan (雞蛋山), Bai Shan (白山), Jiwodu (雞窩渡), and Leipi Shan (雷劈山). The first day I tried to top rope two 5.9 routes and failed. It's just been too long. I forgot the technique and I had no strength or endurance. I just felt a lot of pain in my fingers and toes. On the second day, I attempted another two 5.9 routes. I still wasn't successful in completing them, but I showed some slight improvement. We also befriended some other climbers, including Peter and his girlfriend from Austria, David the Caucasian Chinese herbalist from the States, and A-Wen the young dude who spoke good Cantonese and English from the Sichuan Province. We kept running into them the next couple of days. On the third day, I finally onsighted a route! Err... well, a 5.4 route! :P At least I was reminded of how to tie and untie the knots up there. Then I also top roped a 5.8. Everyone said I was finally starting to get a hang of the sport again and I was starting to trust my feet again. That felt good. :) Unfortunately, things went bad again on the fourth day and I freaked out at another two 5.9 routes.

It was a treat to go climbing with these guys. I never thought I'd be climbing in Yangshuo ever since I took this long break in climbing. It's enjoyable to watch their gracious moves -- they made the moves look so easy and smooth. Nevertheless, I developed a "belayer's neck" - my neck really hurts from looking up too high for too long. But that's okay. It'll go away.

On the fifth day we just took the bus to Xingping and walked around a bit and came back. We took the sleeper bus back from Yangshuo to Shenzhen. The sleeper bus was kind of like the one I took in Yunnan. But this time I didn't have to squeeze in between two other people. Also, they had a seat belt in the bed this time which was good. I could've fallen out of bed a few times during some hard turns. We arrived in Shenzhen a bit too early -- 5:30am instead of the normal 7:30am. So we had to wait till 6:30am before we could cross the border. I went back home, took a shower, and went right back to work -- and I arrived at work a bit earlier than I'm used to!

It was a good trip. Interesting experience, good climbing, good food, cheap expenses, good companions. Thanks to my buddy for making this an enjoyable trip.