16.01.2012

Mountain Paradise, China

Greeting from Yangshuo, China.  I traveled here by night train from Hong Kong and in the morning, through the train window I was amazed by the sight of the mystic mountains of southeast China, a common motif in Chinese art, found in scroll paintings, sculptures, and monetary notes.   
Yangshuo, a beautiful city in the mountains, seems to be one of those places in the world where people disappear to.  It's a remote and odd place for the enclave of expatriates that one finds here, western foreigners who brave the winters in poorly-heated rooms.  But being the crossroads of natural wonders that it is, Yangshuo has grown up to be a well-groomed place, with food, markets, and polite residents that make you want to come back one day.