I really enjoyed my trip. Not only did I get to improve at rock climbing (which was very useful because I went on to do a rock climbing competition in November). I also got to make friends with people from my school’s other campus. We don’t often interact with each other so I enjoyed learning about how things are different there. I think rock-climbing is a really good sport for teamwork, collaboration and communication. You have to trust someone when they belay because they hold the rope which is the only thing that can stop you from falling down quite far. Communication is important because you have to tell someone when you need more slack or something. Also if your team member is struggling to climb you tend to help them out and tell them where to put their feet. So I think I worked on skills like those. On a trip that includes camping and almost whole day physical exercise you do get very tired so I definitely worked on my resilience and patience. To just keep climbing and also when you get tired you need patience for the people who are being a little annoying doing things like spending ages in the shower so the last few people have to rush or disappearing off with their friends when you need them. Luckily the group was overall pretty good and I have had to deal with this on past school trips. Though it still happened occasionally things were usually okay. Though patience still is a good skill to have. Coming with people who take a long time to shower there is also empathy and looking out for others. On the trip, I tried to be aware of those around me. Include someone sitting alone, try to make people laugh when they looked sad or homesick and just have a quick shower. On trips where you are with a group of people for multiple days, it is important to be empathetic and make sure everyone is happy. Otherwise, the whole spirit of the group is affected. Arguments break out quickly, people don’t want to play card games or do group activities. So while on my trip I worked on collaboration, communication, teamwork, resilience and patience I think the most important thing that I took from the trip (and I hope so did the others) was caring for each other. Helping each other is not just a genuinely good thing but it also creates a better trip and I think It leaves me with better memories.
The question I asked on my trip was: How is rock-climbing in Yangshuo impacting the area (especially the town)?
On the last day of the trip, I asked one of the guys from the area. He works for a company called terra tribes and they brought us to rock climbing areas, camped with us and just helped us with lots of things during the trip. He said the things that can be expected like more littering and plastic left in the town and climbing areas. Another problem is as more people visit because the climbing areas are becoming more famous things are developing quicker and getting more expensive so while the tourism industry is booming things are getting quite expensive for the locals. He said that there are fewer people in Yangshuo than Guilin (Guilin is the city near to Yangshuo). It is more expensive to live in Yangshuo. These are problems but with more money coming in there are also good changes. The area now has a social media group so you can see technology is benefiting the town. More tourism is really good for the area but according to the people of terra tribes there are more foreigners moving in and it is starting to change the culture of the town. The area is really affected by the tourists that rock climbing is bringing in. I don’t know how much of the information written down is factually correct but it was what I was told about by a person from the area. The majority is negative with environmental problems as well as money problems but this is a rather recent issue so hopefully, as the town gets used to tourism they can figure out how to keep the monetary benefits of it without to many problems.