After breakfast this morning I took a trip to the concierge desk to look into hiring a tandem and booking a bamboo raft ride along the Yulong river. Just a few minutes later we were set to go. We've got a tandem and a guide for the day and are due to meet in the lobby at 11. We met Lei, as planned and got on to our pink tandem and were off through the main street and on to country lanes winding our way through the countryside to Changlong Harbour on The River Y...

We have taken our 1st day in Yangshuo nice and easy. We just made it down for breakfast about 9.40am and then went back to the room for some chill time. Later on we walked about 5 miles down to the Yulong River bridge, taking in the sights. It's very beautiful here due to the huge and overbearing Karst mountains that provide such an impressive back drop whichever way you look. We ended up visiting a national park where 'The Old BanYan Tree' can be found. It is r...

Arrival at Green Lotus Hotel in Yangshuo. Once again, first impressions of the hotel are very good. It's apparently one of the best hotels in Yangshuo and the lobby area would seem to confirm that. Bad news though, on check out day some Chinese Government officials are coming to stay and we have to be out of the hotel by 8 am! That's gonna be a nightmare, imagine how busy breakfast and checking out will be. As our flight to Hanzhou is not until the afternoon, a...

Today we took the Li River cruise from Guilin to Yangshuo. The first thing that we noticed when we arrived at the dock was how many boats they were! There must've been over 50, all able to take around 80 to 100 people each. The harbour was so busy. Tourists all over the place making there way to their boats with their baggage and their guides. Once on board, we were shown to our table. Their were eight of us on the same table, us, a German couple, a Mexican coup...