We got a to Guilin at 5pm. As there are 2 train stations we weren't sure which one we were going to. As it turned out we were in the closest one to the hostel so we walked for 15mins and found it straight away. We checked in and went to the bar. After a few beers the English guy we met in Beijing walked in. He was stopping in the same hostel as us. We proceeded to play drinking games with doubles in pool, the losers drinks a shot of a Chinese spirit call Baiju (...

The first morning in Chengdu was spent recovering from the train trip. We walked around the city saw the temple and booked the next train tickets in the afternoon. On the second day we got up early and went to see the pandas as its the main attraction in Chengdu. We then got a 3 hour bus to a town called Emei to climb a mountain. We found our hostel and had an early night. The following day we got up at 6 and started to climb. By 3 we were only half way. We m...

We got to Xian at 7am after being stuck on the train from hell. We found the hostel easy as we took a taxi. We had booked a room with only 2 beds as we have always been sharing with people for the past month. The room was really nice and only costing £5 per night. We spent the first day watching films and relaxing to get over the horrible trip. James has also developed a cold, it's too early to tell whether it'll progress to man flu. The second days we met u...

The first night in Beijing was fairly uneventful. We stayed in the hostels bar and drank some cheap beer (40p a pint). We ventured down the road to find some Chinese food - the novelty of using chopsticks has worn off dramatically. It just seems a chore to eat, a shovel would be easier. We ended up having a beer with the Argentinians in our room that evening. We got along surprisingly well, probably as we kept quiet about certain subjects. The next day we got u...