Longsheng Warnings and Dangers

The touts in Zhonglu can be aggressive, persistant and annoying, to say the least. Yes, the women as well. They made for a really bad experience that may be dependent on the time of year we went (February- Spring Festival in China, but a seeming low season for this area). Or maybe they are always like that. I hope not. We could have said, "Yes" to the first woman who offered us lunch, but we wanted to get into town, look around at our leisure, and find a place at which we wanted to eat.

It's really sad, and it's evidence of how dependent these people are on the tourist dollar, that they were so ruthlessly persistent.

We don't like to be pushed around as consumers (though most consumers have no idea just what the ad agencies do to push them around) and these people were the worst of the worst, the telemarketer who calls you back again and again (at 10 pm on Sunday night), or won't accept your answer, desperate to make a sale. They haven't learned to take "no" for an answer, a tragic flaw that nearly got them hurt. Patience is a virtue, maybe, but this got to be too much. If they had left us alone we would have found a place to eat- we wanted to eat there. But their stupidity kept anyone from getting our money, as it should be.

Anyway, my hope is that it was a one-time event and that others have other stories that vastly differ. If not, beware, and be prepared to say no. Part of our saying no was due to the bombardment by touts all over the place at Ping'An... we just got tired of it.

If you're handicapped, there are facilities for you to be carried in a litter at best, a chair between two poles at worst, though to really get around the village and surroundings, you'll need to be able to walk and be in decent shape at that. They don't have much in the way of handicapped access in China yet.