We were up early at 6.30am for breakfast on the 23rd floor for a banquet.

Chinese breakfast dishes and recipes though simple are as varied as the provinces and cultures in the different parts of china. Chinese breakfast dishes are mostly light yet nourishing and filling . There are steamed buns with meat or vegetable stuffing, with dounai or doujiang soy milk or tea. There was a soup made by fried tofu and cellophane noodles, plain rice porridge or rice congee served with numerous side dishes such as salted duck eggs, pickled vegetables, and century eggs, or sweetened or savoury soy milk served with shaobing or youtiao which is almost like a lightly salted and fried breadstick. The ci faan can be both savory with pickled vegetable or pork floss wrapped in the rice ball. There is also a sweet variety which has sugar and sometimes sesame in the like rice noodle rolls or cheong fun served with Hoisin sauce and soy sauce, pan fried noodles with bean sprouts, spring onions, and soy sauce, fagao or rice cakes, jianbing which are thin crispy omelets with fillings, luobogao or turnip cakes and zongzi a variety of rice cake wrapped in bamboo leaves. I had a fried egg and a cup of green tea. My next challenge was using the chop sticks! We had a meeting with our group and left the hotel at 9am with Clara our Tour Guide and Daisy our local guide. We had a 90 minute drive to the Stone Forest which is a spectacular set of limestone groups known since the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) as the 'First Wonder of the World', it is one of the most important attractions of Yunnan. The area is 400 square kilometers and the major attractions are the Greater & Lesser Stone Forests, Naigu Stone Forest, Zhiyun Cave, Long Lake, Moon Lake, Dadie Waterfall, Qifeng Cave and Guishan Mountain. We walked around the Stone Forest for hours. The park is designed so that you can follow a walkway through the formations of water pools and grey pinnacles, the tallest of which is over 30m high. The tall rocks seem to arise from the ground in a manner somewhat reminiscent of stalagmites, or with many looking like petrified trees, thereby creating the illusion of a forest made of stone. Since 2007, two parts of the site, the Naigu Stone Forest and Suogeyi Village have been Unesco World Heritage Sites as part of the South China Karst. We had a banquet lunch at the Holiday Inn just outside the Stone Forest - seven different meals, including sticky pork, steamed rice, soup, fresh vegetables and a chicken dish. We made our way back to the hotel, freshened up and had another banquet for dinner. Getting the hang of these chop sticks. Tonights feature meal was " Across The Bridge Noodles" which is a type of rice noodle soup from Yunnan Province served in a broth accompanied by meat, bean curd and vegetables. After dinner we went to the Dynamic Yunnan which was a grand, traditional dance musical. It fused the beauty of Yunnan's ethnic minority dances and songs with the power and grandious of a modern stage exhibition. 70% of the performers are not professional dancers but are from local ethnic villages in Yunnan Province and they energetically perform in their traditional costumes.

This show lasted for about 100 minutes, blending traditional song and dance, new dance with modern dance perfectly. They think everything has its own spirit in the world. Dancing is their way to express their feelings to the universe.They dance to communicate with the heaven and earth. The performance captures the essence of original rural songs and classical folk dances. It was brilliant !!!!!!