Expats and Espresso

One of the greatest things about traveling is that where there are expats, there is coffee.  Chinese people are not terribly fond of coffee, and it isn't terribly abundant in Baoding, but towns like Lijiang, Jinghong and Yangshuo seem to have a cafe on every corner.  Despite my resolution to save money on this trip by stocking up on instant coffee, the prospect of daily espressos was often too tempting to ignore.

This was especially true in Yangshuo, China's original expat haven, especially because the misty weather followed us from Guilin, and honestly I was starting to get a little exhausted from so much traveling.  Yangshuo is nestled amongst the iconic "gumdrop" mountains and the Li River.  According to the manager of our hostel, it has the highest percentage of foreigners in China.  It is a center for language study, both Chinese and English, and three of my friends actually got offered a job teaching English there next year by a guy they met in a bookstore.  Apparently this is pretty common, and apparently many people decide that Yangshuo is just too lovely to pass up living there, because there really were a lot of foreigners both living and traveling there.  For instance, the hostel where we stayed is run by a family with three daughters, one of whom is married to a Belgian guy and another who is engaged to Paul from the UK (who ran our hostel and had lots of interesting stories about his time in China).

The Li River and karst mountains

 Despite the many western comforts available in Yangshuo, I actually think that it has suffered from the influx of foreigners.  It felt somehow too artificial; not quite Western but definitely not fully Chinese.  I know that I'm a tourist while I'm traveling around China, and I can't escape going to touristy places, but I still think there is a difference between tastefully presenting a place to visitors and filling that place with hawkers and cheap souvenir shops.  I think I'll be happy to trade in my espresso-a-day to get back to Baoding and a more authentic China.