After Shanghai we got a 23hr train ride, then a 2 hr bus ride to Yangsho. Wasn't too bad as we just slept must of the train - getting used to sleeping on hard beds (also helped that I was quite hungover!).

Yangshou is a small town, with stunning views and narrow streets of shops, cafes and pubs. Life is much more chilled and relaxed here. We stayed in town on the first 2 nights, in a hostel called fawlty towers - didn't live up to its name as it was quite nice!! I wanted to do the canoeing and caving here, but unfortunately theres been too much rain so it was to dangerous. So we occupied our time shopping and drinking! I also did a Tai Chi class which was fun...can't remember the moves now though.

We then headed out to a small guesthouse in the countryside called Chaolong, about 5km from town. Scenery here is fantastic and the guesthouse is really relaxed with everyone chilling out in hammocks or playing pool - I could stay here for weeks!

Here I did a Chinese cooking class where I learnt to cook stir fried eggplant in a sauce, steamed chicken and mushrooms, mixed veg with garlic, stir fried pork with chili and veg and pork and mint dumplings. It was all gorgeous...I didn't even burn anything for once!

On the last day here we did a bike ride and walked up hundreds of steps to the top of Moon Hill, which had 360' views all round the countryside.