After a couple of big cities, we decided we were in need of some fresh air and scenery so we headed south via Guilin to the weird other-worldly landscape of Yangshuo. Very cool place and probably one of the most photographed places in China. Except our arrival in the area was greeted with lashings of rain and for the first day the limestone karst peaks (geography and geology degrees remember) were shrouded in mist. Pretty cool all the same though especially as our form of transport to get there was by makeshift bamboo boat down the Li River.

Whilst the rain was hammering down, we occupied ourselves by taking a Chinese cookery course. This started with a trip to the bustling local food market. You may recall from the Chendgu entry that Chinese markets have each and every form of food - well to the list we're going to add dog. Sadly yes we did see little (mongrel) pups caged up waiting to be boiled alive and skinned. And yes we did see post-boiled, post-skinned rigormotous pups being chopped up to be added to some fool's stirfry. Not nice. Luckily the dishes we were cooking (beer fish and pork dumplings) kept well away from the canine filling. But oh my god our dumplings were pitiful. Not our finest masterchef moment for sure. Still we got to eat a lot of food which has proved essential in keeping us warm in the below zero temperatures.

Keeping on the subject of food, we later went night fishing the traditional way - using cormorant birds to catch the fish. Basically these birds swim ahead of the boat and gobble up the fish, except they can't swallow them as their necks have been constricted with string. The fisherman then hauls them out of the water and forces them to spit out the fish. Not the most efficient way of catching fish and it made us wonder how our cookery course fish had been caught...

As soon as the rain cleared up we spent the remainder of the time cycling and hiking through stunning villages and harvested rice paddies and fields and generally getting lost... a lot. We love the way China has a ban on the production of maps (along with Facebook and You Tube) and when the only map that is available doesn't lead you to where it's meant to, well it gets a bit annoying. Absolutely stunning place though so we didn't really care that we hadn't manage to stick to the 'really obvious hiking trail' (quote from hostel staff).

We topped off our few days in the region watching the 'Impression' show - an outdoor night time extravaganza staged on the river and directed by the dude who choreographed the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. Basically 600 fishermen, singers, gymnasts and costumed locals taking to the river and performing on bamboo rafts, moving platforms and sail boats whilst singing (well screeching is more how we'd describe Chinese song) and holding up flowing pieces of fabric and throwing in a few water buffalo for good measure. Our favourite bit was the hundreds of girls wearing suits stitched with LED lights that were timed to come on and off with the music which was awesome to watch. Weird though to see that all the hundreds of girls were exactly the same height to make sure all the lights lined up. The auditions must have been an interesting spectacle. Didn't understand the storyline one bit but with thousands of Chinese spectators and 2 performances every night of the year - well it could only happen in China.