Yangshuo, China - there is a certain tranquility that you don’t realize is there until you’re in that spot – yangshuo, and in particular, yulonghe, provides that tranquility. in travels, i never tire of the sense of wonderment in that point of realization that the life you lead is so uniquely your own.  my rafter for the day, pictured here, was a very funny young man  who i think, if he had grown up where i had, would be incredibly successful by normal social conventions. but he was born here, in a rural village on the southwest corner of china, destined to a life that he described as “ordinary” (a term that i seem to hear more often than not in rural china). but perhaps most importantly, he is happy.