We arrived in Deqin after a brief stop in Shangri La with the intention of doing some more extensive trekking. The crack team was Tom (lad from Newcastle), David (New York), and Cathal (Ireland). Deqin is in the very north of Yunnan province on the borders of Tibet. Given the current situation in Tibet, this was as close as we were going to get, with 80% of it's inhabitants Tibetan. We were met off the bus by a french girl touting this trekking guest house calle...

Hey everyone, I met a few guys in Kunming/Lijiang who I've been travelling with for the last few days so I shuffled the plans around a bit, but this is what it's all about I guess. I got a 9 hour bus from Kunming to Lijiang so that I could hit the Tiger Leaping Gorge trek over the following couple of days. Lijiang is home to the Naxi people of China where the woman is most definately boss. Nowhere was this more evident that at the infamous hostel that we staye...

Just a short update on Kunming as there's really not that much to see from a tourist point of view. Arrived at my hostel called the Hump which instantly reminded me of a Walkabout pub back in London. Staying in Kunming is a bit like being a student without the Ready, Steady, Cook and Countdown on TV. I'm just hanging around near at the hostel or walking round town. I actually went to the cinema yesterday afternoon to see Iron Man, I might order a snakebite and ...

Well the train was great and the fasting worked. I had a soft sleeper on the overnight train from Beijing which is effectively first class, and it was really comfortable. I was sharing a 4 berth cabin with a French couple who we were part of big tour group of 50, most of whom popped in for a beer at some stage. Anyway they told me about large earthquake in Sichuan province (my next destination) on Monday and Xian had felt it quite significantly,but I arrived and ...

Hi everyone, Arrived safely and the airport in Beijing is one of the best I've been to. I was out of the airport within 30 minutes rucksack in hand. Hostel is very small and not many guests, but it seems quite nice and it's central Day one was spent in Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. The first thing that struck me was the amount of Chinese tourists that are hitting the hotspots. Most form large groups of at least 30, all indentifiable by different colo...