Expatriate Games

Yangshuo Weekend

Yangshou is a picturesque tourist trap of a small town located in Guangxi Province about two hours south of Guilin. I’ve been a few times now and despite the touristy thing it still works for me on many levels. The scenery is the big draw. The rivers flowing though Avatar-looking karst mountains have enticed artists for centuries and of course photographers come in droves. Rock climbing is another huge draw. Climbers from around the globe make pilgrimages to Yangshuo and the requisite rock climbing schools have popped up in every nook and cranny of West Street, outnumbered only by restaurants, hotels and a myriad of travel agencies/ticket sellers.

Lily and I were able to break away for a long weekend to meet Oliver, Keiko and baby Sullivan for a non-scripted relaxing break away from our house building madness in Liuzhou. I didn’t get any digital photographs of the stunning scenery or country-side, more on that later. As usual, I found myself drawn to the locals as they went about their daily routines. As is the norm for any vacation spot, street vendors were everywhere. Here’s a small collection of images I did mange with a Canon 5D MarkII…

So yeah, if the scenery is so hot, you may be wondering where those photos are. Well, another big reason we went to Yangshuo was to meet my new lover. Oliver brought back this little beauty from America, a new (used) Mamiya 645AF.

Mamiya 645 AF

I used this camera the day we were out strolling in the countryside and I need to get the film developed and scanned before you can see the results here. Before last weekend I hadn’t shot a roll of film in nearly two decades. If you never see the photos here then you know something went terribly wrong.

So we’re back in Liuzhou to deal with the heat and humidity sans electricity for two hours a day. The local government has instituted rolling blackouts in the face of a power shortage caused by ongoing drought conditions and the oppressive heat. This week it’s our neighborhood’s turn. Ostensibly we are supposed to be without power every afternoon from 3:30 until 5:30. The first two days haven’t panned out exactly like that… we’ve been off for nearly three hours each day so far. With a little of the money they are saving, I hope some government official might see fit to buy a working watch.

Home for a couple of weeks looks like. Most of those days will be spent dealing with the build-out of the new apartment. Oy vey.

Hasta.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 17th, 2011 at 1:28 PM. It is filed under Blog, China Nights, My China Life, Post Slider, Thumbnail Slider, Travel and tagged with 5d mark II, 645af, canon, china, chinese, culture, documentary, expat, expatriate, guangxi, Holidays, laowai, mamiya, My China Life, night, photo of the day, photography, photos, street, Travel, yangshuo. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.