Ni Hao from Yangshuo! We're on day 5 of our China tour, and enjoying it very much. We have a great group of people and everyone's up for a laugh and gets involved.

When our time in Hong Kong came to an end, our tour guide, Tori, lead us all with our backpacks to the MTR which took us to the mainland border. There were a few problems with the group - someone lost their departure card and someone's China visa hadn't been activated, but after a while we all got through - wahoo! There were 3 or 4 security checks and Tori successfully got all 18 of us on the bullet train to Guilin. The train station was our first experience of non-westernised China; there were no signs in English, all the locals would stop and stare at us and hardly no one can speak any English. Ordering lunch was interesting - we just pointed to a dish that looked edible. Despite the language barrier, everyone has been surprisingly friendly and tried to teach us words in Chinese. It's going to take lots of charades to get by!

The bullet train took 3 and a half hours going at speeds up to 308km, after which we jumped on a 2 hour bus and arrived at our hotel in Yangshuo at about 9pm. We've been pleasantly surprised with the accommodation on our tour so far - twin rooms in hotels. No time for sleep though! The group went out for dinner down a small street nearby. We shared the local specialty, beer fish, alongside roast crispy duck and steamed rice. Max had the local Li Quan beer.

Our first full day in Yangshuo began with a tour of the local fruit and meat market followed by a Chinese cooking class. It was a culture shock in the market when you see every single part of an animal laying chopped up on the side. The cooking class was great, it focused on making cuisine from South China, which we learnt can be very different from North China. To begin with we made steamed stuffed vegetables; minced pork and spring onion stuffed in mushrooms, tofu and a pumpkin flower. The next course to cook was fried aubergine with some other vegetables and an oyster and bean sauce. Next up was beer fish - it's pretty much what it sounds like but is incredibly tasty. The final course to make was cashew nut chicken - fried chicken and vegetables in oyster sauce.

In the afternoon, others in the group went for a boat ride down the Li River. However as we cannot afford to do every activity and we would be doing a similar thing the next day, we decided to explore Yangshuo. We started in Yangshuo Park, where the locals were exercising and practicing Tai Chi. From there we headed up the steps and walked for 10 minutes to the pagoda on the top of the mountain. The views were great. You could see the mountains rising every now and then all the way into the distance. To finish we walked down West Street, a road lined with souvenir shops (more for Chinese tourists).

On day 4 of our China tour, we had a full day trip. We cycled with the group for a total of 25km around the countryside of Yangshuo and through villages. It was cool to see rural China. The mountains around the area are amazing - it's a bit like Halong Bay but without the water. At times we did fear for our lives when riding with the traffic on the roads and we kept forgetting that you have to ride on the right. There seem to be no road rules in particular.

We rode to a certain part of the Yulong River and jumped on a bamboo raft. There were 2 seats per raft (deck chair type things tied down). There was one driver per raft and they use a long bamboo stick, kind of like a gondola. The drivers were good fun and despite the language barrier they managed to show us with their hands what certain mountains looked like and kept joking about us swimming. There were four or five waterfalls that we went down where the whole bamboo raft submerges.

Along the river there are ladies on rafts selling drinks. Strategically, five minutes down the river there was another lady selling nuts to go with your beer. We bought our raft man a beer. We floated down the peaceful river for about an hour and magically, our bikes appeared where we got off the raft.

It took ten minutes to cycle to the bottom of Moon Hill, and then 20 minutes to walk up the steep steps to the top. The views were pretty impressive but we're not sure they were worth our sweat in the humidity! At the top there was a Chinese lady, 74 years of age, who had hiked up to the top earlier that day with a bag full of things to sell. She showed us a book she had of coins from all over the world given to her by tourists, together with their passport photos.

Another ten minute cycle down the road and we arrived at the Yangshuo caves. The cave was huge with some pretty awesome formations, including a dragon throne. In the cave we went in a mud bath - what a weird thing to do! The mud bath was quite cold and when you walk through it you can feel chunks of mud. When you get in fully, you simply float as the mud is so dense. Max and all the other guys enjoyed going down the mud slide. Next stop was a hot spring in the cave. The water was 40 degrees, but nice and relaxing in the cool temperature of the cave. Once back in town, we had dinner with the group and made the mistake of sitting outside - we felt like celebrities! Chinese people were constantly taking pictures of us.

This morning we started the day with a Kung Fu lesson in Yangshuo Park. We learnt 20 steps altogether but steps 11 to 20 repeat steps 1 to 10 facing the other way. We learnt that Kung Fu is based on Ying and Yang - in every move you bring the energy in and release it at the same time. The moves flow really well. The positions of your feet are named after animals: water buffalo, chicken, horse, snake, dragon and eagle. You begin by drawing the energy in, step and punch to the left, draw your right leg up and punch with your left hand, turn left again and defend, spin left again and chop etc. It was good fun! Now for the hard bit - a long overnight journey to Yichang.

Steph and Max x