A short note from Yangshuo

An uneventful commuter train to the Hong Kong-China border at Shenzen, followed by a sleeper bus out of Shenzen brought us safely to Yangshuo, a charming village along the Li river about 40 miles south of Guilin. The scenery here is spectacular - hundreds of 500 to 1,000 foot tall karst mountains that look exactly like the ones in Chinese paintings. There is even a picturesque pagoda perched on one of the ones right in town.

The town itself reminds me of Boulder or Aspen. The main drag, West Street, is cobblestone and closed to traffic, and leads straight down to another cobblestone street that runs for a few hundred yards along the river. The restaurants all serve Chinese and western meals (imagine pizza, burgers, chicken cordon blue, fried eggs on hashbrowns, and endless signs advertising cappuccinos), and we have yet to eat an unsatisfactory meal. I'm even beginning to sample the Chinese dishes again. Silk, curio and clothing stalls compete with travel guides and bike hire shops to lure customers off the street.

Unfortunately, we arrived during one of the year's two cold months, and most places lack heat. After one night in an unheated room, we upgraded to a fancy hotel in the middle town that offered us all the amenities: hardwood floors and ceilings, soft, by Chinese standards, beds, a private balcony overlooking west street, a phone, TV, and western bath with a tub - all for thirteen American dollars a night. The only other downer has been the limited internet access, though tonight (Jan. 29) we finally found a regular internet cafe, and we should be posting more regularly for the next couple of days. We may even manage to get some of our own photos up.

We hired a local guide, Esther, who took us bicycling through the backcountry both yesterday and today. We definitely need to get some of those photos up. In the meantime, if you're desperate to reach us, try +1 136 694 625 01, our Chinese cell phone number, which should be good until about Feb. 11.

More tomorrow!