Yangshuo is a great place - so unexpected and unlike anywhere else I visited in China. It is distinctly geared towards tourists but not in a bad way - it has a small town centre heaving with cafes, restaurants, bars, clubs, souvenir shops and tourist agencies eager to book visitors in to the many activities that are available in the beautiful surrounding countryside. Unfortunately I was sick and stuck in bed for most of my time there - I kept trying to go out be...

I had a fun three-day boat trip through the Three Gorges on the Yangzi River. We had a few stops and excursions along the way. In the evenings, we stretched the contents of our backpacks to try to look a little more glamorous than usual as we partied on our balconies or on the top deck! As a consequence of the earthquake in Sichuan in May, we were unable to do some of the activities that were originally planned for the tour around China so the company I was trav...

Chongqing is the largest and most populous city in China with over 30 million people living there. It was the starting point for our Yangzi River cruise and we had a day to explore some of the town before we set off. On the train to Chongqing from Xi'an a few of us were playing cards in the restaurant car. I went to get some food but the menu was all in Chinese - I wanted to find out which item was chicken (the safest option) but no-one could understand what I w...

Xi'an is the home of the Terracotta Warriors. They are located in a site a bit out of the city and, given that it's basically a working archaeological site, they've done a very good job of making it accessible to tourists. The scale of the main pit is vast - filled with life-size warriors and horses that have mostly been uncovered and, in some cases, reconstructed (where they had broken). The original colours have faded on the warriors that were uncovered so, in ...

Shaolin is famous for two things - monks and kung fu. We enjoyed a kung fu show (well, technically I think it was 'wushu' but to the untrained eye it's the same thing). There were some impressive stunts. Later we saw hundreds and hundreds of children practising various types of acrobatics, kick-boxing and weapon-throwing. We saw lots of temples... I was starting to experience temple fatigue - I felt bad that I couldn't appreciate them properly but, having seen ...