Yangshuo: Part I

Ni hao, everyone!

For my final Asian trip, I felt it fitting to visit Yangshuo, the supposedly most beautiful place in China. I’d felt that I hadn’t spent too much time in the mainland, with the exception of Beijing. All I’ve really seen of China is the mall in Zhuhai and Guangzhou.

But many of the other exchange students had visited Yangshuo, and it is even close to the hometown of my Chinese roommate, Cindy. They all highly recommended the trip, so Amanda and I decided to make a weekend trip after my final exam on Friday and come back Sunday night.

However, it is quite a trip to make. Yangshuo is fairly remote, so getting there can be a bit difficult. Our plan was to cross the Border Gate into Zhuhai, take the two-hour bus to Guangzhou, take a taxi to the Guangzhou airport, take an hour-long flight from Guangzhou to Guilin, take a bus into the center of Guilin, and from there take an hour-long bus to Yangshuo.

However, our plans were marred when we arrived at the Guangzhou airport. Amanda had accidently booked a flight two days after, since we were using a Chinese website that wasn’t very functional. But we had arrived an hour and a half before our flight, so we thought we would just switch the ticket and be fine.

Wrong! The flight was completely full, with the exception of first-class. We were sent to another counter to switch the ticket, and after explaining the situation to the woman, she took entirely too long on the computer just to tell us that she couldn’t switch Amanda’s ticket. She would be unable to receive a refund for her ticket, since the website had given her a discount. We asked why Amanda just couldn’t pay the difference between her ticket and the upgraded ticket, and the employee actually replied with “I don’t know.”

Furious, we were sent to another counter, who sent us back to the stupid woman we’d just dealt with. Amanda asked to just completely purchase a new ticket, and she would deal with the website later to obtain her refund. But the stupid woman told us she didn’t handle ticket purchases, and sent us to the counter she’d just sent us to.

Three women were working at this desk, but for some reason all three of them had to help one customer at a time. Apparently there was no concept of a queue, since people just ran up to the counter and demanded to be helped, no matter who was in front of them. When it was our turn, people kept jumping in front of us.

Finally, we were able to get attention, but the employees would talk to us for a bit before turning their attentions to other customers, and then come back for a bit, and then leave again. It was incredibly frustrated, and I began losing my temper a bit.

Finally, we were able to purchase the new ticket, but they would only accept cash or “local” credit cards! We asked why they didn’t accept Visa OR Mastercard (what we both had) in an airport, and they just shrugged. We ran off to find an ATM, but in Asia they tend to close down at night (flashback to our struggle in Kuala Lumpur).

Unable to find any ATM, we returned to the ticket desk to inquire about further options. When we came back, they asked “Are you ready to buy the ticket yet?”

“What time is boarding?” asked Amanda.

“10:05,” replied the employee.

“And what time is it now?”

“10:10.”

And that’s when I lost it. I slammed my fist on the counter (and shouted a profanity) and walked away from the counter. I was furious that because of the incompetence and poor customer service, it had made us miss our flight. Besides, the woman was about to sell us a ticket for a flight we couldn’t even board anymore.

Now in Asia it isn’t normal to display a high level of emotion, so the three employee women looked at me in horror when I came back. I’m sure my outburst was a bit of a shock to them, but I wouldn’t say it was unjustified.

We returned to the check-in counter, where there was a supervisor that seemed to be the only semi-competent employee in the entire airport. I was able to switch my flight to the first one in the morning at no charge, but Amanda still had to buy a completely new ticket because of her accidental discount from the booking website.

Again, we returned to the ticket purchase counter with the three women. At last we arranged for her to purchase a new, economy-class ticket for tomorrow morning, and the bright side was that Amanda only had to pay the difference between her discounted ticket and her new ticket, which was only 20 Euros. But they ignored us at first, since they didn’t think Amanda had enough money to pay, but we explained we had enough money for an economy-class ticket, just not a first-class.

However, this process also took quite a long time, and at one point I wasn’t sure if they were still helping us or playing on the computer. Fortunately, it was pretty late so the airport was empty, and no rude customers were cutting us in line.

Finally, when the ticket was switched, one of them had the guts to ask (in a very friendly voice) if we would like to book a hotel. I wanted to punch her, since it was her fault I had to book the hotel in the first place, but we agreed. Again, this took far too much time, but at last the free shuttle came to pick us up and take us to the hotel.

It was very cheap, only $25 total for the entire night, which Amanda and I split later when she was able to finally access an ATM. I was lucky to have enough currency on me to pay for the hotel room, since the ATMs were still down.

The hotel room itself was fine, even if it was a little older. At least we had hot water!

Angry, we went to bed and set our alarms for the crack of dawn the next morning.

When we woke up, we checked out quickly and took the shuttle back to the airport. At last we had no problems with the airport, much to our delight.

After the hour-long flight we took an airport bus to the city center of Guilin. Already we could see the beautiful mountains that the area is famous for, and I felt like I was stepping into a Chinese calligraphy painting. It was like I was seeing the “real” China for the first time!

After crossing a couple of scary intersections (I thought for sure I would get hit by a car, bike, or moped), we finally reached the bus station. We paid 30 Yuan for our ticket, but we found out to our dismay that we were ripped off and should have only paid 15 Yuan. It’s only a difference of about USD $2, but we were still irritated that we’d been taken advantage of.

However, we were just excited to finally be off to Yangshuo!!!

Coming up next, “Yangshuo: Part II.”

Love,
Kati