Tag Archives: China

China… and the Chinese ! (2)

Bus, city shuttle, high-speed train, city shuttle, bus, mini-bus. Another marathon gets us from Yangshuo to Getu He – out of breath. It takes energy and expertise to go from one place to another in China and find your way between the different means of transport : first, you must fight through a crowd of taxi drivers, street merchants, commission takers, on-the-spot city guides – all those people who know better what you’re doing and where you’re going – or simply the curious ones ; then, you try to ask locals for directions, but the vast majority of Chinese don’t speak a word of English and the rest of them are worst – since they’d hate to answer “no” to one of your questions they prefer to pretend they know what you’re talking about and give you a totally random response or direction.

On our way to Getu, we go through Guiyang, the capital of the Guizhou province of China. This mega city mesmerizes and frightens us. Fascinating, huge, compact, polluted and ugly. It looks like one of those futuristic towns in an agonizing end-of-times kind of world – and, watching through the windows of the public bus, I’m swallowing my bag of caramelized peanuts like popcorns in front of a science fiction movie. Big 30-stories apartment buildings one after the other as far as the eye can see. A sea of human habitats. Life in the most compact form. One architecture and one design for a whole block of 20, maybe 50, identical apartment towers. Then another design and 30 more ! This city seem to have been planned and designed in one week, built the next and stuffed with working ants on the morning of the third week.

Getu was the site of the Petzl Rock Trip in 2011 (watch the video on Youtube !) and has been equipped with amazing routes and splendid multi-pitches by some of the best climbers in the world. The area is simply unreal. Limestone cliffs are cut in the surrounding mountains like butter with a jagged knife. Then of course there are the Great Arches, that gave birth to a National Park : one huge arch swallows a large river that winds between 15-meters high bamboos, a second one rips the mountain open higher up to the left and lets the sun rays flood the valley every month of October. After the usual negotiations to get the best prices for room and food, we settle in a comfy two-persons bedroom with private bathroom and, unbelievable, HOT SHOWER ! Of course we are still the only white folks around but that’s fine, we got used to it.

Then, we tackle the climbing. Intense, hard, exposed, amazing ! We concentrate on multi-pitch routes and man ! every day is a new adventure ; every day we learn something new about techniques, gear, ourselves ; every day we drag our sorry carcasses back to the village and devoured from our bowls of rice under the startled look on our guest’s face. We send project after project and get into our first 7b’s multipitch. Never thought we could do this ! Alex almost “on sight” his very first 7b on our last day on the 6th pitch of “Captain Hook”, a good 150 meters off the ground – bad luck with a loose hold – and I lead my first 7a ; hectic first climb in a white-out and descent in pitch-black darkness on “No Name” ; memorable get away after “The Brazilian Fuse” in the Great Arch, when we have to go through a labyrinth of caves, suspended bridges and climb the fences of the National Park because we got down from our climb too late and on the wrong side of the river, with no more taxi boat to get us across.

So yes, China kept us busy with its amazing climbs and intriguing people. It’s a bit of a mess, a bit of a piggery, often I couldn’t comprehend it, but unmistakably I want to go back !

China… and the Chinese !

Alex and I met in Bangkok on November 14th 2015, after two years of not seeing each other and a couple failed attempts to reconnect in Northern America. We were hosted like kings at a friend’s flat (thanks Mali) – in a building full of expats from Belgium, France, Germany, etc. that soon became the basecamp of our meandering in South-East Asia – and tackled the planning of our future adventures. It was quickly decided we would do a little bit of rock climbing before getting in anything too serious together … Just a few months ^^ First we would try to get a Chinese visa and climb in Southern China for a month – Yangshuo and Getu were bright bulbs for the free-roaming flies we have become and we simply HAD TO check it out. After some costly misunderstanding with the Chinese embassy – the first of many communication misfortunes (Chinese brain simply isn’t operating the same way ours is, you have to understand and accept that in order to enjoy China and it’s people, seriously) – we were told we’d get the visa by the end of the month.

A marathon of poor nights (one of which we spent at the police station in Chiang Mai, after failing to spend the night in Buddhist temples, both very cheap options for those of you that have a tight budget), cattle-like train (le fameux “train du chien”), plane and futuristic high-speed train got us to Yangshuo in the Guangxi province of China, on November 29th. The surroundings are impressive : the winding Yu Long river meanders between thousands of karstic peaks that pop up from the farmed land like mushrooms in ever-lasting mist-ery. Lots of climbing to be done here. Let’s roll baby !

Life is good, cheap and simple. We have an off-the-gird room in a family house in a little village South of Yangshuo ; an indecent motorbike (ou “la bouse”) that fails, breaks down, rapidly falls apart and rattles like an archaic vapor train, but gets us everywhere ; a close-by local market where we buy our fruits, vegetables, biscuits and tofu (after watching the documentaries Cowspiracy and Earthlings – strongly advised ! – we sort of tried ourselves at eating vegan) ; and the traditional restaurant where we dine every night. I say ‘dine’ but really I should say ‘stuff as much food – an insane quantity of rice every night – in our mouths as fast as we can with our chopsticks’ – we got pretty good at it –, because, climbing hard and eating only fruits, vegetables and biscuits during the day, we are quite literally starving by diner time. But we enjoy that daily hot meal : the food is tasty, healthy, simple and cheap. And for once we know what we’re actually being served – no dodgy-looking strips of flesh whose taste is covered by spices and chili.

The weather is cold and rather humid, and we aren’t prepared. Our room stays unheated except for an electrical resistance stuck in what looks like a tiny chicken cage. We are forced to buy hats, gloves and puffy jackets. It is low season too, so there’s really just ourselves. BUT we’re doing great, climbing hard, and these two weeks give us time to get used to each other’s company, appreciate our reunion and think about future plans. At some point, two days of steady rain flood the bridge to the village and see us stuck to our room for 48 hours – this allows us to rest (for once), work on our CV’s and do some research for job opportunities abroad – it also forces us to cross the river bare-footed in order to eat at night, something that brought us the sympathy of the villagers …

The climbing is awesome and our progress tangible. Alex plays in a 7c for the first time. As for me I do my first 6c on sight and a tricky 6c+ “project”. First experiences of long routes for me – Alex is a great teacher ! We climb almost every day for two weeks. Next destination : Getu, for a week of climbing awesomeness !

Fun facts

Fun fact 1 : after flooding the motor of our motorbike, the latter scarcely works and we often have to run behind and push it in the middle of the traffic (mmmh pâté !).

Fun fact 2 : after some time, the Chinese family that owns the restaurant where we eat every night starts inviting us for diners – there’s the grandmother, the two sisters and their husbands and kids. Great moments shared in their company. The food is delicious and the brazier under the table makes wonders ! Google Translate on our phones allows us to communicate and the exchange is fun, sometimes weird. They are startled at the length of our beards, despite our young age, and attribute this to an “excess of masculine hormones”. The grandmother also offers to find me a girlfriend … Finally their rave about Alex’s “rough hands” and “deformed fingers” (pauvre Alex qui s’est fait mordre le petit doigt par un cheval à 5 ans n’y peut strictement rien ^^).

Gilles.