We left Hong Kong on the high speed train service to Guangzhou, after passing through the border formalities we were thrown in at the deep end, we had to find our way across town to the bus station. Thankfully the underground system was really good and all automated - the first problem we faced was trying to book our bus ticket, we managed to get the wrong bus station where nobody spoke english!! When we did get to the right station the only tickets we could get were for 5 hours later, there was no baggage storage so we ended up killing time playing cards in McDonalds!!

We arrived in Yangshuo at 5am, where we very sleepily got off the bus and found some accommodation where we went back to bed and slept all morning! When we finally woke up we went to go and explore the town, it is very touristy but really nice too. There are loads of shops selling all kinds of stuff, we have had to be very restrained, especially with the cheap north face gear everywhere!

In the evening we tried to find a place to watch the last day of premiership matches, we ended up at a place called MC Blues where the barman promised to see if the games were on, no joy, only on satellite. We ended up watching it all unfold on the internet, what a crazy final day, big drama at the bottom! Because of all the excitement we drank quite alot, Sarah's G&T's contained more G than T! We also sampled some more snake alcohol (why!!) and a strong alcohol infused with kumquat (equally bad!!).

We had originally planned to go for a bike ride the next morning, however we were both pretty hungover so we ended up having a lazy day! In the evening we did go to Impressions Liu Sanje Show directed by Zhang Yimou, there are over 600 performers the majority being local fishermen and ethnic minority groups. The show is outside set on a masiive water stage just off the river Li, 12 surrounding karst peaks are lit up during the show, some of the visual effects that are used are amazing. It was really spectacular, we didn't understand much but were still very impressed.

We were up early for a full day out on Tuesday, we went to Longsheng and the Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces. On the way we stopped off at a tea plantation and participated in a Chinese Tea Ceremony, very interesting, you only get a thimble full of tea a time although it is really good tea!!

The road to the rice terraces was incredibly steep as they lie up the steep slopes to about 850m. They are a real feat of farm engineering, the irrigation keeping the paddy terraces wet is very impressive. We climbed up to 2 viewpoints one at 950m where the terraces apparently look like The Nine Dragons and Five Tigers, we then walked to the second peak (880m) where the terraces look like Seven Stars Accompanying the Moon, it must take alot of imagination - i couldn't see it!

The rice terraces were very impressive it was really good to have a walk in the mountains too. It was very touristy especially in Ping'an a 600 year old Zhuang village but because we took our own lunch we managed to escape most of it, we were however harrassed by women from the next village who are in the Guiness Book of records for their hair which is generally longer than 2m!!

Yesterday we hired bikes and headed out into the local countryside. The scenery is stunning massive karst peaks coming from the plain in every direction you can see, the ground is really flat full of paddy field and other agriculture, they still use buffalos to pull the ploughs! This means the cycling is pretty easy! We walked up to the top of the moon hill, a crazy peak that has a hole in the middle of it looks really bizarre. When we climbed to the very top the views were amazing, a 360 degree panorama of the countryside with these crazy peaks pointing like sharp gren teeth into the sky as far as you can see. It was just a shame it was hazy, the photos really don't do the view justice. It was a really nice day, good to get some exercise!!

On Monday there was really bad news in China, at 2:30pm a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck the Sichuan province. It is maybe 400 miles from where we are at the moment and thankfully we didn't feel a thing. Everyday the news seems to get worse from initial reports of 3000 deaths to now over 13,000 with over 20,000 people are still buried, it is the worst earthquake they have had for over 30 years. We were planning to go to that exact region this weekend so in many ways we have been incredibly lucky again just missing it. The news over here is focusing on the more hopeful news stories and keeping all of the horrible images off the television (very unlike Peru). We just hope that the rescue efforts have as much success as possible and the area can return to normal as soon as they can.

Now our plans have changed we head off to Xi'an later on a 26 hour sleeper train so we arrive late tomorrow night! Hopefully it will be on time.

Lots of Love

A&S xxx