I'd been writing to Guo Shenglan for almost 10 years and spring festival was the perfect opportunity to eventually meet her. She lives in the middle of nowhere in the Hunan countryside, so an area I'd never get the opportunity to visit otherwise. Not even mentioned in The Lonely Planet! Was certainly an experience and my Chinese probably improved more in those few days than at any other time. Foreigners always attract a lot of attention in China but there people had genuinely never ever seen one before me. Her poor family had no idea how to treat me and seemed to be petrified of breaking me! I was even followed to the toilet! I was invited to dinner by a group of 40 odd government officials. I had to partake in toasts every 10 minutes and be force fed for 5 hours, then was taken to the karaoke where i was forced into a horrific version of an even more horrific song (Titanic- My Heart Will Go On) Unfortunately my Chinese was not yet of a high enough standard to fully take advantage of the situation and I had a hard time staying awake. Just smile, smile, smile and nod the head!! Huaihua is truly ugly but I was taken to where Guo Shenglan and family had all grown up in the countryside which was wonderful. A typical Chinese court yard set up with the entire family and animals all living together in a few rooms. I think it would be a wonderful place to grow up. The family was extremely welcoming and it was a lovely breath of fresh air. It was an amazing opportunity to experience this lifestyle. However, for some reason they thought I would prefer city comforts and we only stayed for the day. After 4 days I had simply run out of energy and was desperate to get back to Tianjin. So desperate that when there weren't any seats left for the next 35hr train journey, I didn't mind having a standing seat! Luckily, some friendly train policemen befriended me and I spend the journey sitting in the buffet carriage, once again being force fed!