The annual Yangshuo Climbing Festival got underway Friday night after a couple of frenetic weeks working with local villages, building the bouldering wall, preparing the stadium and getting all of the logistic in place for the event. The weather is cool and sunny, truly as good as it gets in Yangshuo. The festival volunteer team has worked well together and the weather has also co-operated. Tomorrow starts the open climbing and the bouldering competition.
Other than a few minor issues, relationships with the villagers are on a very good footing and I do not anticipate any confrontation during the festival. It is in everyone’s best interest that relationships between the villages and the climbers work out smoothly and that the villagers begin benefiting more directly from our presence on their land. They will be selling drinks, including ginger tea, at some of the crags as a way to introduce them to selling directly to climbers. Everyone is encouraged to buy something from them.
The YAI opened for general membership this week and climbers are starting to sign up; there is very high interest in and appreciation for what we are doing. This is just the beginning and we will need more volunteer work to work on future village development projects which is clearly turning out to be the linchpin in all of the YAI work.
Updates soon.
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