So, I'm in the beautiful seaside resort of Sanya at the southern-most tip of China. Well, the resort itself is not especially beautiful. It calls itself the 'Hawaii of China' but it's more Miami than Hawaii, with lots of high rises and the inevitable construction work going on everywhere. The beach is a glorious sweep of golden sand, lapped by the blue, tepid (and possibly limpid) South China Sea. It is ferociously (??) hot but there are coolish sea breezes and t...

By 11 pm last Saturday I managed to find a hotel, with a bath no less! Nothing like total immersion when one hasn't washed for a few days. The next day (Sunday)was a day of rest. I could hardly move. Even stepping off the pavement was painful but by Monday I'd recovered and went to see the Stone Forest, at Shilin, about 120 kms outside Kunming. I had to procure yet another expensive taxi because the buses were too complicated. The Stone Forest is a huge area of ...