YangShuo and the areas around Guilin were like the China of our imagination - Rice Terraces, misty Karst mountains, slow rivers and sunken farmlands - The stuff of dreams and fantasy films. We spent several days in this area walking or cycling through the countryside along narrow pathways through rural areas, returning on one occasion by bamboo raft negotiating several weirs. We hired Tuk-Tuks to explore the town and surrounding villages. The hotel itself was st...

Chengdu is Panda City - Every possible product has a picture of a Panda, even cigarettes have a Panda brand. Yet another huge city, masses of people and an enormous statue of Mao, in the main square. The hostel (called Mr Panda) was located centrally and guess what, our ubiquitous Frenchman (Medhi) turned up for the fourth time on our trip (he may be a stalker) We went to see the Pandas, which was good but perhaps not worth travelling through half of China for....

Travelled from Beijing to Pingyao, a small ancient walled city, one of the last surviving in fairly original form and spent three days there in courtyard style accommodation - our host was helpful and friendly, though not over familiar - "just call me Mr Jai" he pompously said when we asked his name. Confirming that "it's a small world" ; we met an Irish couple (Jerry & Anne Marie) who we had met randomly in Beijing and a French guy (Medhi) who we had previo...

We arrived in Beijing by train to be met by the biggest crowds we have ever seen - From beginning to end Beijing was like leaving a football ground (probably not CCFC) and have the crowd stay with you all day. We queued and took a taxi, then had an interesting tour of Beijing for the next hour - a little earlier than we had planned but the taxi driver was obviously keen for us to see his city! The driver drove deep into the hutong area, turned off the road into...