Alison: We arrived in Fenghuang by bus and were dropped off at the station which was in the middle of nowhere. We had the address of our hostel written down in English which was a big mistake because most people can't speak any English. Even if you have the address in Chinese, it is still difficult to get a taxi. They always stop if they are empty but if they don't fancy taking you to where you want to go, they just say 'no' and wheel spin off! Ev...

Nigel: The only reason why we came here was to transfer to our next destination. As it happended we had to stay the night as the next train was not until the next day. We had already booked a hotel and after the last experience with hotels we weren't expecting what we got. Were we surprised... for 22 pound we got king size bed, plasma screen tv and computer which was just a little part of what was in the room. The room was to an excellent standard. The only ...

Alison: We stayed in our first hotel of the trip in Yichang and though it was a pretty basic room, we loved it! Such a nice change from the hostels we had become used to. The best part was the bathroom which we were pleased to see had a western toilet. The previous accomodation only had the traditional Chinese toilet aka a fancy hole in the floor that you have to crouch over....we like to call them crouchers :-) These toilets are pretty much the norm in China and...

Alison: Wuhan is another of China's furnaces and was supposed to be a small pit stop to break up our journey across to mid China but for some reason we booked 3 nights which was way too long. Whilst waiting for the train to Wuhan, Nigel made a new friend. A Chinese student walked in to the train station and his face lit up when he saw Nigel. He broke in to a run and then sat down opposite us. He didn't say anything out loud to start but was whispering to ...