Yangshuo is a lovely town, where we had a cycle ride in the countryside seeing vegetables and rice being grown with the less well off still using Ox to pull their ploughs, had a nice trip up the river with great views of the hills. The town thrives on tourism, having a market and small shops selling gifts and souvenirs, so we've had to buy another bag to put all the tack in (couldn't stop Ga buying) but we did enjoy the place. Friday 12th May took coach, two fast...

Saturday 6th May, more cute animals Pandas at the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Centre, we spent the morning watching these beautiful bears including the red pandas (smaller but just as cute) That afternoon onto Chongqing the largest city in China 30 million to board our boat for the Yangtze River Cruise for 3 nights, we mostly chilled, had a short excursion to a riverside town and a two hour trip up Shennv stream with steep rock faces both sides of the gorge. Tue...

Tuesday 2nd May arrived at Baoguo Monastery, Mount Emei, we got on the overnight train 22:00 Monday and got off 17:00 Tuesday (long journey) Our accommodation at the Monastery is basic shared squat toilets and communal showers (men's & women's separate) gongs at 05:00 and chanting at 07:00 Blissful. 3rd May as well as the gongs and chanting we woke to heavy rain which put pay to our trek, so we visited a Nunnery up the mountain, interesting and we spent the a...

Half day city tour 30th April was very good, in the afternoon we first visited an art gallery where Chinese art was explained to us, then a calligraphy lesson (fun). Then onto a emperors mausoleum from the Hun Dynasty which covers 20 square kilometres, featuring half size figures (men, animals, chariots and food stuff including the oldest tea in the world) all to serve the emperor in his afterlife it was fascinating. 1st May went to the Emperor Qin Shihuang's Ma...

25th April visited Tiananmen Square and the forbidden city, that afternoon had lunch at the Hutongs (alleyways) then a tour on a rickshaw visiting old single story dwellings with beautiful courtyards, hearing historic tales about the area and the last guy we met was very interesting he trained crickets to fight (supposedly the best in Beijing) he was a scream we had such a laugh. Early 26th April took the fast train to Shanghai very quick 300kph early dinner and ...