hi again, at 2 i went to the bus station in litang, i was expecting a bus but before i knew it i was bundled into a little sandwhich van they call a taxi with tibetans. again these people are so friendly, one even bought me a bottle of peach milkshake. the ride was beautiful. at times it felt like you were driving across the roof top of the world with mountains stretching out into the distance and little rivers running through some of the most amazing scenery i've ever seen! we passed some really cool villages aswell, some looked like the were built straight into the mountain face. i would have taken a load of pictures but i wasn't sat next to a window that opened. so now i'm in daocheng. it's not quite what i expected, looking at the pictures on the internet it looks amazing, but the town's not to bad with a some really nice buildings. i'm going to stay here for 2 nights i think and then i might go to yading, even though i'm not getting any help from the bus station, or maybe i'll head out of sichuan and head down into zhongdian in yunan, it depends on the weather and if i can find a way to yading. today has been a cool day. i woke up to some rubbish weather so i stayed in bed for a good hour and just relaxed reading my book. i can't seem to put this book down at the moment! dragging myself out of, a very nice and warm, bed i went for breakfast up the road and had some great dumplings for next to nothing. i spent the morning just walking around the town and decided there wasn't much to daocheng, it's like a tourist town but with no tourists in it! i stumbled across the yading hotel where i saw a note for people wanted to go to shangri-la, sod's law, they left this morning! b*****!! whilst i was there i saw the computers had a c.d rom so i thought because there wasn't much to do around town i'll try and update my web site. i managed to put songpan on there and then that was it. on the way back to my hotel i took a small detour around the back of town where there were some really cool big, and i mean huge, stone buildings. the weather was still looking crap so i decided not to bother going to yading because it wouldn't be as good without the weather and it costs a small fortune to get in, so i booked my bus ticket out of here for tomorrow for zhongdian. as i walked out of the bus station the clouds parted and the sun came out to play! typical!! time for more food! i found a cool little resturant with this really friendly women as the cook. and oh my god can she cook!! i asked her to choose something and just cook it and i don't even know what i had but it was bloody lovely! while i was stuffing my face with whatever it was, the cook took my phrase book. she was looking thorough it for a while and then she stopped me eating and pointed to 'handsome', that was it, every meal from now on in this town will be eaten at her place!! she continued looking and after some time she pointed to 'single' in the book, i nodded with a mouth full of food, the next thing i know she's trying to hook me up with her daughter sitting at the next table! pointing at 'husband' and 'wife' making kissing motions with her lips inbetween laughing her ass off. the poor daughter was cringeing with embarresment like you can only feel when your mother is making a scene. after the food the daughter is bullied into having her picture taken with me, so out comes the camera, and before i know it i've got the whole town wanting there picture taken!! with the sun beating down on me i walk straight past the hotel and down the road and towards a huge stupa with a glorious backdrop of mountains, loads more pictures are taken. then i see some tibetan prayer flags on top of a hill so i decide to investigate. walking up the hill was bloody hard work!! breathing heavy like i've been smoking 40 a day for the past 20 years! at the top the view was amazing. the mountains all around were amazing and the prayer flags looked great. a few more pictures. at the top i looked down over the other side of the hill and saw a way back to town over a river and through the back of town. when i got to the bottom the river was alot bigger than what it looked from the top of the hill. there was no dry away across, so off come the shoes and sock. walking through the river was really nice, really slippery but nice, at one point the water came upto my knees! it was about time i gave my feet a real good wash!! after i got back into town i went into the yading hotel again and got chatting to a really nice chinese guy who helped me to copy my photographs onto a cd and then showed me his pictures from yading, they were out of this world, nevermind, next time i'm in china!! better get back to the hotel because i've got to be up at 5:30 to catch that damn bus!! cheers all. christopher