13 - 15 February It was a short bus ride to Yangshuo, a small bustling town sandwiched between some of China's most beautiful scenery. Our hotel, West Lily Hotel, was cheap and clean and perfect for us. We dropped our stuff off as soon as we arrived and went for a walk round town. We didn't end up getting back until 2am, it was such a wonderful wee town, the perfect backpacker haven. We ended up in a bar/hostel called Monkey Janes and ended up playing an Ameri...

11 - 13 February The train ride to Guilin was so dull. Twenty six hours on a hard sleeper seemed far longer than five days on the Trans Siberian Express. We were desperate to get off by the time I arrived. We booked two nights in a dorm room in Flowers Youth Hostel. The room was basic, but the social room was great. It had DVDs, a pool table and the occasional rat running through it, but that was something we would have to get used to. When we got off the train...

8 - 10 February We arrived late morning in Chengdu and headed to our hostel, Mix Hostel. It was a lively hostel and pretty much in the centre of town. We walked to the old Wenshu Monastry and Adam had a bit of a hissy fit because he was hungry and I wasn't. We ate a variety of food on sticks and then had an easy one for the rest of the day, neither of us had much sleep on the hard sleeper. It is hard to sleep when people are starring at you non stop. The next m...

2 - 7 February We arrived early in Xi'an and headed straight to the hostel. It was way out of town and there were no bars or restaurants within a two mile radius, we had defintely made the wrong choice. The first day we spent there, we tried to get to grips with the city, it was huge and really dirty. Not the best place I had ever been to, but not the worst either. It had no life or soul to it like Beijing. The second day we headed on an early morning tour to ...

January 29 - February 1 The train to Pingyao was the first train we caught alone. We were and I am not exagerating the only Westerners on the train. We had a ten hour ride ahead of us and hard seats, which numbed your bottom within minutes. The train was so busy it was first come first served for seats there were so many people standing. I was once again the centre of attention on the train, once the train had cleared a little men would come sit opposite and s...