Yangshuo, my first time visiting

The first time I went to Yangshuo was in 1996. At that time the town was already quite busy with backpackers. However, I came in early spring, it was still cold and there were few travelers in town. At that time I was backpacking, it was my second visit in China. Many areas were already open but some were still closed. The area in between Yangshuo and Guilin was, at the time more or less open.

I remember I arrived in the middle of the night in Guilin, by train. Image these days, arrive in the middle of the night, all hotels closed and it was a freezing cold night (mid March).

One hotel was open but refused to give me a room. The directed me to another hotel which was nearby. That hotel refused to give me a room too. It might have been because they had no license for foreigners, I don't know. What I did know was that I was at 2.30am not willing to go out again.

I used a trick I had heard of when hotels were not willing to give you a room. Don't forget it was 1996 and many hotels were simply not as commercial thinking as nowadays. The trick was this, there was a nice sofa near the window.

The staff and the security guard never stopped gazing at me when I took my shoes off and lied down on the sofa to sleep there. I am quite sure if the window had not been there, they may have allowed me, but the window was the problem. Now everybody could see me. The guard first tried to convince me I had to leave the hotel but now I refused. If they were not willing to give me a room, I refused to leave the sofa. After all, inside the hotel hall it was warmer then on the street.

The guard started debating with the staff. That went on for a while. So I lied down again but immediately the guard came to me and told me I could get a room. I checked in, had a quick nice hot shower (which after 22 hours in the train I could use) and slept until late in the morning.

The morning staff was different from the night staff but they had obviously heard of the crazy Dutchman who wanted to sleep on the sofa in the hotel window. As good Chinese no one wanted to show the curiosity and I left the hotel, to take a bus to Yangshuo.

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