Impression Liu Sanjie is a major production with a cast of 500 singers, dancers, bamboo boats and cormorants bids. However, the stand out performer is definitely the background scenery. The lighting of the karst peaks is truly amazing and was our highlight.
The performance is based on a Chinese musical movie made in 1961. The story is about a lady called Liu SanJie who lived in the city of Liuzhou (2 hours from Guilin) where she worked in the fields. Liu Sanjie was well known in Liuzhou for her great singing voice. She would always sing while she worked in the fields. Most of her songs were about the repression felt by her and the farmers from the local landlords who over taxed them. She had to leave Liuzhou for her own safety and came to Yangshuo on a bamboo raft and settled here.
Yangshuo’s farmers also had problems with their landlord and Liu Sanjie took up singing against them. The local landlord had her kidnapped, but she escaped after the local farmers staged an uprising against the landlord. The locals agreed with the landlord that they did not have to pay taxes if they could sing better than the landlord, something which they always did.
Then under the Big Banyan tree, Liu Sanjie tossed her love ball to her loved one, which he accepted and they lived happily ever after.
Show Time
1 Hour, from 20:00 to 21:00
Tickets
188 Yuan per person. Does not include cost of transportation, need to reserve in advance, contact Ticket Center for more details.
Show place
At the confluence of the Li and Yu Long Rivers, Just south of Yangshuo
How to get there: Take Golf style vehicle from the top of West Street. Cost 2 Yuan. Takes 5 minutes. Other option is to walk back as traffic is very bad as everyone leaves at the same time.
Officially cameras are not allowed but this was not enforced
Firstly – ensure it is appropriate! Small stores and markets (especially street markets) are all about negotiating! Try it in a franchise or large department, and you won’t be received favorably…
Step1 Be confident! Chinese will expect you to negotiate.. (it’s a cultural thing…). Our culture frowns upon it, but its normal life in Yangshuo.
Step2 Don’t look too enthusiastic about your potential buy. Complain about its quality, the fact that it is a fake-brand or the color. Start to walk off, then look back, then ask how much it is..
Step3 A good rule-of-thumb is to quote the price of what you would pay in USD, but in their currency of RMB. For example, in a Market, the asking price for a leather belt could be RMB300. You need to think “would I pay USD300 for this?”. No.. you would probably pay USD30 (remembering, the brand is fake). Offer them RMB30 – and you are in the right ball park.
Step4 Expect them to complain, look upset, cry etc.
Step5 If they say No, start to walk away. The best buys are done when you walk away, and they come running after you. You can always go back later if they don’t come after you (then you know your price was too cheap!)
Step6 Remember that in markets, almost all the stores will sell the same goods.. so you can start cheap and know confidently that you can buy it somewhere else if negotiations aren’t successful.
Step7 Remember that Chinese do not take negotiating personally (however they look that way). After you agree on a price, they are more willing to congratulate you on your negation skills than anything else.
Step8 Expect people to hold your arm and touch you physically. Its normal in China.. don’t be intimidated!
Step9 Learn some simple Chinese – like “Ni Hao” (hello), “Xie Xie” (thankyou), “Tai Gui le” (too expensive), “Zai Jian” (bye), “Duo Shao Qian” (how much), etc. Chinese very much respect Westerners that have learnt some Chinese. These words will only take you an hour to learn, and will make your shopping experience MUCH more fun!
Step10 Don’t buy underwear… very, very uncool. (bad experiences!)
Step11 If the product is a brand name – Assume what you are buying is FAKE. It will be. If it has a cut label (such as the label at the back of a sweater), then it is probably REAL. Look for these, although they are rare.
China is considered the most difficult country to travel mainly due to the language barrier…BUT…that depends on where you travel. You will have around three to four months a year off to travel.
In some schools, nearly 4 months due to exam revision. I eat healthy but cheap so I save my money to travel this huge and beautiful country. There is a spectacular Back Packers Trail that begins in Yangshuo/Guilin. You then train it across to Kunming (Yunnan). From there you can go south to the Xishuangbanna or north to Dali, Lijiang and Zhongdian (Shangrila).
All along the trail you have sections of each town that are for ‘US’, the western tourist.
In these places you can eat anything you get back home. There are many, sometimes too many hostels, all are friendly, inexpensive and 99% of the time can book your on going bus or train ticket to your next destination. They can also book little one day/half day tours, horse treks and treks like the Tiger Leaping Gorge etc in the area around where you are. Most will even do your laundry for next to nothing.
This is the main Back Packers Trail for one reason…..it is extremely beautiful.
I call it a Back Packers Trail as that’s how I usually travel but in these places you will also find wealthy tourists who are happy to hand out their money on little day tours etc. I just hire a bike and do it all myself. You can also hire bikes all along this trail. You will also meet other western travelers all along this trail so in the end you actually never travel alone and you will share costs, nerves, beers and fun with many people just like you.
Chinese trains are excellent.
You usually have three choices that all cost different amounts.
If you can not book in advance in some most cases you will stand. If you can then you have a seat with everyone and have a great time. Or you can book a sleeper. The less expensive is a compartment without a door with six bunk beds, the more expensive is a compartment with a door and it has four bunk beds. I usually book the cheaper one. You are safe and will be looked after by the Chinese. If I am traveling for several nights I then book the more expensive.
Chinese buses….HHHhhmmmm!
There are several types. The newest is the ‘Long Distance Express’. Beautiful and clean. Next is the ‘Long Distance Sleeper Bus’. Sometimes you can fit into the bunk bed! It is a bus full of bunk beds. I love them and have had heaps of fun traveling around China. Many hate them. They smoky, people play mp3′s on their phones without ear phones, they talk, they make phone calls…all night! (‘they’ being the Chinese). Sometimes you may get a good one where the driver won’t allow smoking, but 99% of the time it’s as above.
Local buses…..if you’re in a little town they are usually inexpensive and can get you to almost any town in the area.
Inner city buses…don’t expect a line and when the bus comes, run with the rest of the Chinese and push your way through the door to get yourself a seat. I usually stand back, watch and laugh myself silly at how they behave. I then have to stand but it’s worth it!
Train tours in China China train travel forum FAQ for train travel in China
The computer you will have will vary from school to school. You MUST have DSL or cable internet. In my first school I had just a standard computer, cheap speakers etc but all software worked fine along with msn etc. My last school I had a wiz bang computer with awesome speakers etc. Once again all software worked fine and the computer I’m using now is mid way between both and all software works fine.
BUT……………Lets talk software!
Iif you have a copy of XP in English and XP Office in English…burn them and bring them both.
Most of the time your computer will have XP etc, whether it will be in English in another question. Usually it is doubtful that it will be in English. In most small rural areas or schools where they’ve never had a foreign teacher before your computer WILL have XP in Chinese. Most times they have no access to an English version.
I always make sure I find somewhere to burn a second copy of my English one and give it to the school for the future.
Unless your school has had a foreign teacher before and that also depends on whether that teacher used msn, yahoo etc, and your computer will not be set up for it. Remember you’re in China and they really don’t know what we use. When I go to a new school I always ‘format’ the computer and begin fresh.
I use a site called www.filehippo.com to download everything from.
Eg: virus, spy ware, cleaners, msn, yahoo chat, google chat etc.
It’s all there and it’s all free and free from virus.
So what your computer doesn’t have you can always get for free from filehippo.
My only advice is to bring a copy of XP and XP Office.
I’m unsure how long you will be here but my second advice would be to bring some sort of memory device.
You are going to take a LOT of photos and I mean a LOT! Everyone does so I hope you have a digital camera. I made things easier by buying myself a new mobile phone that has a good camera in it. Less to carry!
My latest phone/camera is the awesome Nokia N95 8GB!
Yes, that’s 8GB of room for MP3′s and photo’s for when I travel!
You can either have your photos burnt onto disk at a Photo Lab and they are everywhere here OR you can buy or bring a little hard drive. As I’m here for along time I got myself four tiny little palm sized 80 gig hard drives for identical back ups. If one becomes corrupt I still have the other. All of these I purchased here in China.
Like I said, you WILL take a lot of photos here if you plan to travel and you don’t want to loose your colourful memories.
I taught 20 classes or lessons a week. Yangshuo is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to. It is a ‘soft’ way to be introduced to China. It is full of western tourists and has several streets that have only western type bars and eateries. It really is a most wonderful welcome. My advice is to hire a bike and get out into the fields and spend several nights eating away from ‘West Street’ as Yangshuos ‘West Streets’ are nothing like where you will be going.
Each lesson goes for 40 minutes. Your school can not make you work more than 20 hours (classes) per week. If they ask you to, of course you can but I think it is something like 100 Yuan per lesson they must pay you. I’m working 21 classes a week.
Your standard contract will be ?000 Yuan per month and it won’t be less if you only work 10 or 16 lessons a week. I was once doing 16 in my first school and I know of one teacher who was doing 10 lessons at one stage. Normal though is 18 to 20.
Overtime…no chance.
The kids are sooooooooo busy with their school and extra school activities.
You could maybe tutor of course but I’d ask Owen or Jennifer if it is ok before doing it. I only teach Primary School but if you were to choose to teach Middle or High school your eyes will be opened very wide. Their school hours and study is 100 times harder than ours in Western Countries. Some High and Middle schools have only half a day off per week and many students arrive home around 10pm to begin the following day at 7:30am/8:00am.
You will not become part of this and your hours are strictly 9 to 5 Monday to Friday.
Sometimes you may have to work a weekend, usually once a year depending on your school. But this is a good thing as it is usually attached to some sort of holiday. Let’s say you have Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off as public holidays, instead of having the weekend free then everyone attending school on a Monday and Tuesday, you will work the weekend and have the week off including the following weekend.
It says in the contract that we are obligated to do special promotional work (sometimes during vacation periods). How often have you had to do this? Did it disrupt any travel plans that you may have had otherwise? I have never had to do any promotional work since arriving and have never known of anyone who has had to. Depending on what it is I would also never allow it to disrupt my holidays. You must remember we are paid a LOT of money compared to everyone around us so the schools like to show us off. You will be taken to a lot of huge feasts and sometimes your school may try to plan a weekend for you. This can also be a good thing as it is usually an adventure.
This will only happen once or twice anyhow so it is nothing to worry about.
My current school loves HUGE dinners and I am invited out to eat at very expensive places a few times a week. It is free and if I don’t want to go I don’t have to.
The cost of living in Yangshuo depends totally on what you are like as a person and what you want your life to be like here in Yangshuo. I haven’t cooked since my arrival three and a half years ago.
Of course several times when Chinese friends dropped in we all cooked huge feasts, well…really, they cooked and I talked. You will be paid ?000 Yuan a month and a normal lunch will cost between 3 to 10 Yuan and a dinner the same. It depends on what you eat and where you eat.
They have what is known as ‘fast food’ here in China. Not ‘our’ type of fast food that isn’t good for you but a buffet type thing. The food turn over is almost instant so the food is usually very fresh and hot. I usually have this for lunch which costs me between 5 to 7 Yuan. This includes an egg, fresh beans and vegetables, meat etc. You point and they serve. So that is one Aussie dollar. For dinner I have noodles or fried rice or soup etc. Depending on where I eat and with who it can cost from 3 Yuan to 20 Yuan.
A total of between 50 cents to 3 Aussie dollars.
Beer…a bottle of beer costs 2 to 3 Yuan. A total of 50 Aussie cents. The same bottle of beer in a club can cost you anywhere between 10 to 20 Yuan. This is what I mean by it depending on you and what type of person you are.
So all up out of your ?000 Yuan you will spend 300 to 500 on living costs a month less if you cook at home and less if you eat at small market noodle stalls like I do when I travel.
I don’t personally see the point in cooking when ‘I am in China’. Food is so so soooo cheap and it is delicious. You will find out just like everyone who comes to China, the Chinese food we get at our Chinese Restaurants at home is nothing like what you will eat here. It is cooked different and tastes a lot different. In most cases better, in some ‘not better’. It took me two years to find a place that serves a ‘sweet and sour’ sauce as ‘we’ know it. Everywhere else it has been mainly soy sauce with some other ‘things’ but to me it wasn’t ‘sweet and sour’ sauce at all.
Bills and living costs: In most schools you will have no bills.
Not even your large water bottle will cost you. Of course if you make calls from your home phone you will pay the bill along with the bill for your mobile phone but you will not have electricity or water or gas bills etc.
If you have a mobile phone, bring it as most of them will work here in China. When you get here the school will organise a new SIM Card for you and you’ll soon be mobile again. Texts to overseas countries cost around 1 Yuan…around 0.20 Aussie cents. Text messages within China cost around 2 Mao or…nearing free to us.
To make it simple…
You will be paid very well
Everything is cheap along with the transport which can get you anywhere you want to go in China
(with a little patience).
You will be safe and very well looked after.
You may not end up teaching in a place as beautiful as Yangshuo but everywhere you go in China you will find beauty. To me the Chinese people are the friendliest and most beautiful people I’ve spent time amongst in my travels. I feel very much at home here and will stay for many more years.
Sadly though, some people just can’t handle China. They find it too dirty or too loud or simply not a society they want be part of. I’ve only met a small amount of these people and some of them I could tell upon first meeting them that they should maybe teach in Japan or a western country. Another loved it but after a year her patience and tolerance began to fade and her desire for carpet and roast dinners won.
When it comes to teaching you will have a lot of help.
You will feel nervous at first and it may take several weeks for you to find ‘your style’ but that is normal for any new job anywhere in the world. Once you get the hang of it maybe like me you’ll love it more than anything you’ve done prior. I have a heap of stuff like lesson plans I can send you once you settle in. Buckland’s also have a lot of ‘stuff’ they can offer to help your first few weeks pass by with fewer nerves.
And lastly, Buckland’s really are a perfect choice when it comes to working in China. They have a great contract and have been doing this for a long time. If your school tries to take advantage or doesn’t understand something you’re asking Owen will be on the phone to them instantly.
Now it’s up to you to decide!
So think about when you want come to China.
That is if China really is where you want to live and teach. For the next term?
How long do you want to stay?
Do you want to teach children or teens?
Do you want to teach in the north or the south?
The north really is different to the south.
Most don’t believe it until they have lived in both.
Food, colour, the people…all are different.
I now leave you with your thoughts!
In schools of Yangshuo, very simple by our western standards but you will have everything you need. If something breaks it will be repaired a lot quicker than back home believe me. As being a foreign teacher you are treated as a ’special guest’ in China. Sometimes like royalty. It can get a little too much as the Chinese sometimes don’t know when to slow down or actually stop treating you so special.
Some schools offer huge three bedroom apartments and others like my first and favourite, a simple one bedroom apartment. You will have a western toilet but don’t expect your bathroom to be like the one you have at home because it won’t be. In fact it won’t be no matter where you are in China unless you are very rich!
But you will have a western toilet!
One thing that is standard everywhere in China is the white tiles. They are everywhere. You will not have carpet on the floor but tiles and a lot of the time tiles on the walls. So it can be a tad chilly in winter. Most places will have some form of heating in either the bedroom or the lounge room or if your lucky both. Here I have both but the rest of the place is cold!
Most of the time, your accommodation will be at the school. In China the schools also have apartment buildings where families live at the school. You will usually be in one of these. Here my front door leads right onto the playground so I have little kids running in and out all the time. But that is my choice. If you close your door or say ‘Bye Bye’ they will go away. Or if you make it known at the beginning you don’t want children around your place they are happy to do as you ask.
In my first school I was four floors up and also had many teachers and their children living around me. I taught many of the kids so we had a wonderful time watching DVD’s and on birthdays etc. In my last school I was living out of the school right next to the town square. It was beautiful and only five minutes from school.
Of course you can have guests.
I’m sure the school will also treat your family to a huge dinner or two whilst they are here in China with you. Whether they can actually fit in your apartment will depend on how many rooms there are. Hotels are very cheap so it really isn’t an issue if they can’t fit in.
We took a bus 90 minutes out into the Yangshuo countryside. We arrive the backpackers’ paradise, a typical Chinese town of Yangshuo.
After a over a week in some of the biggest cities in China, and even Xian has over 3 million inhabitants, we finally escaped the madness in the south of the country. On Monday (23rd) we flew to Guilin.
Yangshuo and the country are both incredibly hot and muggy down here, with temparatures in the early 30s and humidity 70 plus. Just walking quickly makes you sweat, and there’s little respite even in the evenings. In Guilin we spent most of the day chilling out in a big park, which was lovely apart from a very weird zoo! In seems China’s animal rights lag behind their human rights. Loads of different animals were caged in crampt, dirty conditions and tourists were encouraged to have their photo taken with various dressed and tethered animals, including monkeys, peacocks and most disturbingly a yak. The poor thing looked like it was about to die, standing in the heat with its huge winter coat with nowhere to go. Only the thought of being told to recompense an unhappy Chinese man for his lost animal dissuaded me from cutting a few of them free. No pandas though!
On Wednesday morning we headed for a great little place called the Giggling Tree that we’d seen advertised. It is about 10 minutes taxi ride out of Yangshou, right in the middle of a kast valley, with huge steep limestone hills all around. Apart from watch The Last Emporer, ride bikes down the road a little way and go for a run (no a good idea, soooo hot even at 8am) we did very little, just chill out, soak in the scenery and read. Just finished book 2 in the second week which ain’t bad. Ranulph Fienne’s biog, very good!
Today it’s a 20 hour sleeper (1st class!) down to Hanoi, so bye bye China and hello Vietnam, country number 2. Have really enjoyed China, not as difficult as we thought, people are quite friendly if a bit pushy, and it’s going through some pretty big changes. I’d recommend a visit soon.
In Yangshuo, we went to watch cormorant fishing. Cormorant is a kind of large and conspicuous waterbird, the cormorant has an almost primitive appearance with its long neck making it appear almost reptilian. It is often seen standing with its wings held out to dry. Regarded by some as black, sinister and greedy, cormorants are supreme fishers which can bring them into conflict with anglers and they have been persecuted in the past.
The cormorant is a fascinating bird. It is able to dive under water and stay there for a long time. While it is under water it searches for fish. The bird then catches the fish in its beak and returns to the surface.
The bird is unable to swallow the fish as a string has been tied loosely around its neck. The fisherman, who is on a bamboo raft will lift the bird onto the raft and remove the fish and drop it into a basket. The bird then goes back into the water to try to catch more. You can view this in the evenings. The local travel agencies and local guides can arrange this for you.
The birds are treated very well all of their lives. In the past, and in some cases still now, they are essential for catching food for their families. In some guide books you will read that cormorants eat every 7th fish they catch. This is true for some birds, but you may also be able to view that some fisherman continue fishing after your show and the birds eat all of their new catch.
Vital Statistics
Eggs: 3-4 Incubation: 28-31 days
Fledging: 50 days Maximum lifespan: 23 years
Length: 80-100cm Wingspan: 130-160cm
Weight: 1,700-3,000g