By now, West Street 西街 in Yangshuo is packed with people. This is definitely the most famous street in Yangshuo and it shows. The street is lined with restaurants both western and Chinese, it has Chinese souvenir shops from the lame to cool water color paintings. Both foreigners and local Chinese are walking along this area apparently enjoying this busy street in Yangshuo.
I came to Yangshuo hoping to see the fabled West Street, but I when I got here I felt a little disappointed with the reality that is West Street. It is far too commercialized, hawkers also line up the streets of West Street hoping to cash in on the tourists. Even people who offer massages and river tours roam the street. This didn’t feel like the Yangshuo I was hoping for, it felt more like a more Chinese Hong Kong streets or a Shanghai. But that was not all.
Despite my disappointment, I still found the place interesting enough to walk through. After all this is my first time here. My friends also felt this disappointment and I agreed with them, though we continued walking through the crowd. There were some dessert stands along the way where the ladies got a cup of sweet dessert.
As we were walking, an ugly side of West Street reared its head. We were walking along it when I noticed that a young man was using some kind of very long forceps (for lack or a better word) to get into a pocket of a more elderly man in front of him. At first I thought he was just playing a prank on him but when the elderly man realized this, he turned around and the young man quickly disappeared into the crowd. It was a brazen attempt to get his wallet. I should have realized this can happen since there are just so many people here. A little bump will go away unnoticed and so will your wallet.
My Chinese friends also saw the whole thing happening and realized how unsafe this place was. We made sure to hold on to our valuables the rest of the way. Later they would tell me that it woud have been unwise for the elderly man to call for help since these thieves work in groups and would have been dangerous for someone who is alone. The thieves survey the field looking for easy prey, so this means that as long as your wallet is secure there is nothing to worry about. As another Chinese friend told me, thieves can be common but robbers are not.
For the rest of the trip here in China, I have become more careful of my stuff. I hope the authorities can do something about this situation since in can ruin the tourism industry. West Street can be a nice place to visit but the commercialism takes away a lot of the charm. So until the crime situation improves, brave the crowd, but make sure to hold on to your wallets – tight.
[xmlgm {http://www.worldwanderings.net/kml/Yangshuo.kmz} zoom=14]