We left Guilin in the worst thunderstorm we have ever seen. Even though it was still very warm and humid outside, we found ourselves in our coats and paddling across roads with our rucksacks. However, it made for an interesting overnight train journey as we watched the flashes of lightning through the window from our middle bunk sleeper beds. The train pulled into Shenzhen station at 11.30am, 14hours after we had got onto it and so we were relieved to get off. T...

We landed in Guilin at around 11pm and had a pickup arranged to our next hostel. We arrived and dumped the bags in the room and started making plans about what to do with our stay, Despite the time we sat up until 2am chatting with the hostel staff and trying to decide how to make the most of our 3 days there. We had been told previously that Yangshuo was the place to stay and that Guilin is mainly used as the way in and out. However, we had already booked 3 nig...

After having conquered the hard sleeper, 16hr train journey, we arrived in Chengdu completely exhausted and so took a taxi to our hostel. This hostel had been recommended to us by the friends we made in Beijing and they had told us to look out for "Jackson" a Tiawanese long term guest, who would more than likely show us around. We bumped into Jackson that first night and introduced ourselves as friend of friends. Jackson was absolutely delighted that we knew his ...

Helloooo!!! So its been a while:-) we've covered a lot of ground since Beijing, so theres a lot to catch up on. So first things first....the sleeper train!!! We survived the 12hrs and 30minutes and even made a friend who was on her way to see some famous yellow blossom flowers just outside of Xian. In all honesty the journey was very comfortable and we quite enjoyed it. It was a soft sleeper though (4 beds bunk style and a door)....hard sleepers (6 beds 3x3 and n...

We left Shanghai via express train, and sped north, arriving in Beijing within 5 hours. A chinese guy sitting next to us told us that this train was even faster than the Japanese shinkansens. We watched the scenery change as we left the skyscrapers of Shanghai and entered into miles and miles of flat countryside. The sun descended into the smog in the distance and turned into a perfect deep red globe hanging in the sky, it looked more like a nearby planet rather ...