Yangshuo: Day One

Over the last weekend I decided to take a trip into south China to a town called Yangshuo in the Guangxi Province. I went with Chase, Kalen, and a local Chase knew, Mandy. We left CUHK on Friday to go to Shenzhen to catch the train to Guilin. The train was a night train meaning that most of the trip was done through the night. It was scheduled to leave at 5:50pm and arrive in Guilin at 6:00am the next day. The train station was very busy and had to wait in line for a while before we could purchase tickets. We got the highest class of seats, soft sleeper. This meant that the four of us would get a cabin to ourselves and each of use had a bed. It was a very small cabin and the beds were bunked but it was a lot more comfortable (and safer) then any of the other classes. On the train there were a few other foreigners but it was mostly locals (and a lot of military officers) traveling. There was a restaurant car on the train which we spent some time in the evening in. The food was cheap but questionable. All of us tried to go to bed pretty early but it was difficult on the train. One thing that was obvious while taking the train across the country was how many people there are. We rode for several hours outside of the city before I lost sight of a high rise. There were also numerous slum villages of just shacks which I did not see much of since the sun set soon after leaving Shenzhen. Many famers had plots of land that were just the space between the nearest building or road to the rail track, often being only a few feet wide. I saw very little space being wasted.