is there poodle in my noodle

The climbing in Yangshou has been a real treat. There is something for everyone here; overhanging roof thuggery, delicate crimpy wall climbing, huge multipitch adventures, and friendly single pitch scenes. The rock varies wildly from polished and highly-trafficked orange limestone to sharper and esoteric grey limestone – and everything in between.

October and November are when the action really happens due to the stable sunny climate. All crags are accessible by scooter, which you can park anywhere you fancy – no one is judging. In fact, no one really cares.

The climbing community is the friendliest we have ever experienced (including the impossibly huge flying insects and hornet population); everyone is happy to share knowledge and help out, which reflects our experience of the Chinese in general. Minor scooter collisions are met with chuckles and friendly concern, and there is no preoccupation with rules or trespassing or which way locals decide to drive up and down the dual carriageway. Simitaneously hair-raising and carefree.

Yesterday we erroneously ended up on a building site and while trying to reverse my bike off a large mud bank, I twisted the GO FASTER handle and my bike shot forward and got some air like a stunt in the A-Team. The foreman shrugged his shoulders and helped us retrieve it from the ditch with a smile on his face. All in a day’s work.

Shopping for groceries is an adventure in itself. The fruit and vegetable section is like entering an alien planet.

Similarly, finding tasty and eco-friendly crag treats is quite a task, and we have introduced the concept of a ‘supermarket decision tree’ to whittle down decent edible options. Sweet or savoury? Offal or meat? Processed or natural? Will it detain us in the toilet all night?

As you may decipher from the below selection, most portable snackage would survive a nuclear holocaust.

Supermarkets are a real contradiction; on one hand, there are mountains of rices, nuts, grains, pulses and dried mushrooms which consumers weigh themselves with very little plastic wastage.

On the other hand, the aisles are packed with instant noodles, which contain at least 5 smaller plastic sachets to add to the mix, and prepacked snacks are the least eco-friendly commodity going.

To comprehend how China achieves a carbon emmissions output per capita measuring a third less than that of the EU, despite apparently burning the globe with its single-use synthetic clothing and tsunami of plastic toys and gifts, it took some research. More on that another day.

For now, we are off to enjoy being amongst  the locals, who, young and old, dance and sing in the street like no one is watching.