I have, not surprisingly considering the length of time since the last blog, a fair few things to talk about in this blog. The fact that i've left it so long means I will probably forget a few things...but that's entirely my fault. Where do I start? I won't even attempt this post to be arranged chronologically, as with nearly 2 months since last time I wrote, I'm sure to get a few things mixed up. I may as well have everything mixed up! One rather important t...

The end of travelling certainly doesn't equate to the end of the fun and surprises of living in China, so here follows the first blog for after spring fest. There's plenty to talk about! I arrived home on midnight from Urumqi after those few days in Fukang mentioned in the last blog. It was a comfortable -20 or so and the trees lining their way from the train station all the way to the centre of town were still coated in thick snow. For some reason I decided to ...

There is no need to linger on this visit to Fukang, as I was basically there to recover from the Xi'an illness, but I want to complete my travel map... I was only meant to stay in Fukang for one night, with the plan to go home to Kuitun in the morning. Given that horrific illness, which I will not give any details of at all (it wasn't pretty), I decided to stay with the Fukang guys for 3 days instead. During that time, I did manage to get out of the house a lit...

This one isn't really a proper blog, but I don't know another way to make sure I mark every location in order on the blog. The only notable thing to mention, as we have no been through Xi'an a fair few times, is that it was Valentines day while we were there. This resulted in the only day ever were Chinese couples appeared in equal harmony, rather than the usual appearance of Chinese Boyfriends seeming to be in a perpetual state of terror towards their girlfrien...

After Suzhou it was time to head south into Guangxi province. Guilin is famous mainly for being the image people often think of when they think of sterotypical China. The lush mountains in the area have that iconic cone shape and tower of relatively flat plains around them. The effect is spectacular. Running through the middle of the city is the river you see those iconic shots of raft fishermen using cormorants to bring in their catch. Being far south, the winte...