Another overnight train and we arrived in Yangshuo, the most beautiful place we have been to in China. The town is small and atmospheric and surrounded by limestone karsts. On the first day Mark chilled out and Kim did Tai Chi and painting classes and found out that painting a simple picture of bamboo is really, really hard!

Day two dawned and we donned conical bamboo hats and took to our bikes for a cycling tour of the countryside. The scenery was stunning although it was hard work and Kim was grateful for the opportunity to dive into the river to cool off, until she got tangled up in green slimy weed. Mark (glutton for punishment) opted to also walk up Moon Hill and reached the summit by climbing a pole! Kim, meanwhile decided to rest her weary muscles and drank iced tea in the cafe! In the evening we headed off to the famous Yangshuo Light Show, choreographed by the guy who directed the Beijing Olympics opening and closing ceremonies. Set on water with an amazing backdrop of limestone karsts the show featured very well behaved buffalo, a floating thing that looked like broccoli and a moon which looked like an inflatable banana!

Our final day in Yangshou and we went on bamboo rafts down the River Li. More stunning scenery and relaxation - bliss! Mark also had a go at holding a pole with a live cormorant on each end. These are used by fishermen to catch fish...random! One of them was vicious looking and Kim was half convinced it would think Mark's nose was a fish and go for it...but no. Shame - would have made a good picture!