Yangshuo - Population: 300,000 Province: Guangxi Zhuang Located: Li River17 & 18/11 - We stayed somewhere overnight, but very sorry, its been a while as I haven't updated the log and cant remember where, but all I can remember is that whilst travelling to the train station on the morning of the 18th I was wasnt feeling very well. We had to catch an overnight train to Guilin. This was the worst journey I've ever had, it was the journey from hell for me...

14/11 - After catching a local bus we arrived at the industrial city of Chongqing - City Population 7.2m. gateway to the Yangzi River. The bus ride took 8.5 hours and was through some of the worst roads we've seen and experienced so far. As it was public bus the locals were bringing all sorts of birds and animals on it, and the spitting...lets just say its pretty disgusting even on board the bus!! We boarded the boat at 7pm, setting sail at 8pm. The cabin wa...

Population: 400,000 Province: Sichuan Location: 3099m above sea levelSat 11/11 - 8.30 start to Leshan to visit The Grand Buddha, Dafo, 71m high and carved into the cliff face overlooking the confluence of the Dadu and Min Rivers. We were told this is the largest outdoor seated stone Buddha in the world. It took about 90 years to complete the statue. Very impressive, and as we got there fairly early on we just about beat the crowds!After lunch we continued on to t...

Population: 11.3M Province: Capital of Sichuan  Location:  West of the Sichuan BasinWe caught the overnight train from Xi'an, arrived Friday 10th November 5.30am, we were all very tired as we didn't get much sleep.  Straight to the hotel to drop bags off then out for breakfast to Holly's Cafe, more banana pancakes for me!First stop of the day was the Chengdu Panda Breeding & Research Base.  I know its a really gi...

Population: 6.8M   Province: Shaanxi   Location:  Located on the Silk Road Arrived in Xi'an (former Imperial Capital) this morning around 8.30am on the overnight train fromBeijing...great fun...slept in a cabin of sorts (open door into thin corridor...that sleeps 6) I was in the middle bunk with George on the top bunk...Jules and Gen on the bottom bunks and Tom opposite me with John on the other top bunk...the others were in...