The sleeper train from Guilin to Kunming could have been a bit of a disaster… when we booked the tickets at the station in Guilin, we were informed that they were the last two hard sleeper tickets for that train. What they did not tell us – and what we did not notice ourselves – was that the two bunks were in completely separate carriages! That means that Siqi would be in carriage 6 and I would be in carriage 4 – and we wouldn’t be able to sit next to each other during the day for fear of leaving luggage unattended. Luckily, as soon as we were on the train, it became apparent that the guy sitting opposite me was travelling alone and after a bit of a chat I managed to convince him to swap places with Siqi – which he very kindly agreed to.

After that, things went pretty swimmingly. We managed to buy long distance bus tickets to Dali on the train itself – so as soon as we arrived in Kunming we were whisked off to our high speed coach and 4 or 5 hours down the line we turned up at the long distance bus station in Dali. We have now been here for four days and are staying in a lovely hostel (The Jade Emu) which is pretty much brand new (opened in 2008) and is located in a nice quiet area just outside the Old Town. The hostel is run by an Australian man and his Chinese wife and stands apart from pretty much every hostel I have been to – the bunk beds are extra large, you can charge phones and cameras inside security lockers, there is free internet access and there is all sorts of entertainment available to keep you busy.

To be honest, we haven’t been doing a great deal here, just general chilling out over a pot of Pu’er tea in the many hippy cafes on offer, doing some shopping around for cheap clothes and trinkets at the night markets, cycling around on a tandem, swimming in the lake and walking in the Cang Shan mountains. It’s nice to take the pressure off for a bit and to stay in one place for a couple of days – and the Old Town here has a great atmosphere and plenty of speciality food on offer.

Unfortunately, all this relaxation comes to an end tomorrow – it’s time to head back to Kunming for the last few days of our trip. Whilst we plan to spend two or three days in this provincial capital of Yunnan, we also hope to head out to some of the nearby sights and smaller villages and get out of the bustling city. After that, it’s pretty much the end of our trip… but first we have to endure the 38 hour train ride back to Beijing! No time to go to Sichuan this time round – maybe next time I’m back in China.

We caught the coach from Guilin to Longsheng and after a couple of hours of windy roads we arrived at the bus station where we took the minibus to Jinkeng. Whilst the Dragon Backbone rice terraces are well known amongst tourists, the terraces and villages at Jinkeng are less developed and more picturesque with few foreign tourists making it that far. We stayed the night in a vegetarian guesthouse run by a family of Yao minority chinese where we enjoyed some lovely food and great views up the valley with terrace upon terrace of lush green rice plants as far as the eye can see.

Yesterday, we got up early and after a hearty breakfast, we shouldered our rucksacks and set off on a wonderful (although pretty exhausting) 5 hour trek through endless stretches of green rice terraces from Jinkeng to Pingan, a bigger, more touristy Yao village where we stayed the night last night.

The food here is great – with plenty of fresh vegetables and locally grown rice. We enjoyed a delicious meal of wild chicken steamed in a bamboo stem last night.

Whilst initially planning on moving on further north into Guizhou province today, we woke up this morning to torrential rain and decided that it wasn’t worth getting all of our luggage drenched with nowhere to dry it out for a few days.

Besides, we’re feeling tired and need to be back in Guilin on the 27th to catch our hard sleeper train to Kunming. So instead, we are going to stay in Pingan for another night as it is such a scenic place – then catch a bus back to Guilin tomorrow where we will stay for just one night.

The rain has now stopped – so I figure it is about time to head outside for a stroll and some lunch shortly. Hopefully get some more photos!

Me and Siqi are now on the bus to Guilin after a lovely stay in Xingping. We spent our last few days chilling out a bit – we hired a tandem in Yangshuo and did some cycling around the nearby countryside, did a bit of souvenir shopping and then spent most of yesterday chilling out on the banks of the Li river, swimming and cliff jumping (well Siqi didn’t take part in the latter…).

We also ordered the barbecued Li River carp as we said we would – it was absolutely delicious. The chef grabbed it out of the tank, whacked it on the chopping board and had it scaled, gutted and cut up in a matter of only minutes. Once barbecued he then placed it in a spicy oily sauce and added dried peanuts and vegetables on top… all that for only 40 yuan!

Today we are taking the bus to Guilin where we will try to get another bus out to the Dragon Backbone rice terraces for a day or two. Due to time limitations, we may not have time to venture into Guizhou but rather head straight on to Kunming after the rice terraces – maybe I can try again when I’m next in China.

Right, that’s it for now, just arriving in Guilin, more updates soon!

In the end, whilst poring over the “Rough Guide” outside the Yangshuo long distance bus station, we decided that Yangshuo had become a bit too commercial over the last few years (it now has a Mc Donalds and some big five star hotels) and so instead of staying in one of the many buzzing youth hostels and hotels in the town centre, we took a bus to a place called Xingping which is 27km away and found a room in a new YHA that has recently opened in this charming little village.

Unlike Yangshuo, Xingping is still pretty much unknown amongst backpackers and does not really show up on the tourist map. Whilst a few of the big tour boats from Guilin stop here for half an hour or so each day to let the (mainly Chinese）passengers go for a stroll, generally most tourists don’t make it this far. There are only a couple of western cafes and restaurants – everything else is completely local-orientated.

We spent most of yesterday chilling out here and wandering around the village – the hostel has a pool table, table football, a great choice of films and amazing italian pizza (for those who are not allergic to gluten). It was nice to be able to sit back and relax, have a few beers and watch a couple of films!

Today, feeling much more refreshed, we took the bus down to Yangshuo where we caught another bus to Yangdi. There we managed to engage in some serious haggling with the locals and got ourself a bamboo raft downriver for just 120 yuan (for the two of us) BARGAIN! We couldn’t have chosen a better day or a better time. All of the big tour boats from Guilin had long-ago taken their clientele downriver to Yangshuo and were heading back upriver – with nobody aboard. Furthermore, we got aboard our boat at about 16:00 pm – so we witnessed a wonderful glowing sunset over the limestone mountains just as we were arriving on the riverbank back at Xingping two hours downstream from where we set off.

This evening we enjoyed some delicious rice noodles and kebabs at one of the local joints. The guy who run the place came and sat down with us and we had a long chat in Chinese – he then offered to cook us fresh barbecued fish tomorrow night, an offer that could not be refused.

That’s it for now – I’m off to watch a film in the common room with Siqi and maybe enjoy another beer or two. More updates when I next have a chance to get on the internet! I’ll let you know how the fish tasted…

I am now in Guangzhou after having had a great few days in Hong Kong with Siqi. We stayed there for about four days and visited Chang Zhou island, Lamma Island as well as many of the sights in Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. It was also nice to meet up with Ajun (a HK classmate from Beijing) who had just flown home – and she took us out to taste some delicious Dim Sum and other Hong Kong specialities and even invited us round to her house for dinner where we enjoyed some tasty home-style cooking!

Getting a Chinese tourist visa turned out to be no problem – so after picking it up yesterday, me and Siqi took the train to Shenzhen… only to find that there were no tickets at all left for the train to Guilin (not even for the next couple of days). Not despairing, we took the train to Guangzhou but upon arriving last night, we were once again disappointed to find that all seats and beds had been booked up for a good few days to come. With that in mind, we had no choice but to retire for the day and took a bus to a surprisingly pleasant YHA hostel in the heart of a rather unpleasant city (Guangzhou is heavily industrial and very crowded). After a good nights rest, we got up this morning feeling somewhat refreshed and managed to book a long distance bus to Guilin that will leave this evening. It’s not ideal but the bus will have air conditioning and it’s considerably cheaper than taking the train – with a journey time of 10 hours in total. Unlike my last experience with sleeper buses (Shenzhen to Guilin), we bought our ticket from an approved ticket office so hopefully it should be a smooth ride overnight to Guilin – with no bed bugs, bumpy roads, police checks and lack of toilet stops. From Guilin we will take a boat down the Li River to Yangshuo and chill out for a couple of days… maybe do some cycling and swimming, have to wait and see.

That’s it for now. Best go and get some food shortly and then head over to the bus station. More updates when I next have a chance to get on the internet I guess.

Here are some highlights from the trip to Hong Kong:

At the harbour in Hong Kong

Delicious Lunch

Siesta time

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Wildcat

Catching the breeze

Hong Kong Style Lunch

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I decided that before I disappeared off to the south of China for my travels with Siqi, I would make a final visit to the Great Wall and go for another trek from Jinshanling (金山岭) to Simatai (司马台). Conveniently, Ajun, our friend from Hong Kong had not yet been out to the wilder parts of the Great Wall and decided to come along with me and Siqi too.

Once again, we took the train to Gubeikou (古北口) in Hebei province and stayed at our favourite homestay there where we were warmly welcomed (the food was delicious). We got an early start to a slightly misty day and took a minibus out to Jinshanling where we bought our tickets.

As the day went on, the sun got hotter and hotter and finally burnt through the cloud leaving us with beautiful views along the “spine” that makes up the Great Wall of China. Luckily, there are plenty of locals en-route who had hiked up there during the early hours with big crates full of ice cold refreshments – which you had to barter for. We eventually made it to Simatai but this time did not have enough time to do the full climb up to the top, instead taking the zipwire down to where the cable car is and catching a bus back to Beijing.

Despite this being my third visit out to Gubeikou and that particular section of the wall, I’m showing no signs of getting fed up of it – in fact, I’m already looking forward to my next trip! This little excursion is very practical for anybody living in Beijing – it takes three or four hours to get to Gubeikou, there is plenty of time to walk and take photos on the Great Wall and the accommodation is very affordable. Here’s a quick (rough) budget:

• Train out to Gubeikou – 15 yuan
• One night’s accommodation with evening meal – 30 yuan
• Minibus to the great wall – 45 yuan for the bus
• Jinshanling Great Wall Ticket (no discount) – 50 yuan
• Drinks on the wall – 5 Yuan for bottled ice tea
• Simatai Great Wall Ticket – 40 yuan adult, 20 yuan student
• Zipline – 40 yuan
• Transport back to Beijing – 20 yuan (no travel card), 11 yuan (travel card), 8 yuan (student travel card)

All in all, for students, you could be looking at paying less than 250 yuan for a weekend away in the chinese countryside!

entertainment for the road

kitchen and water pump

time to eat

toothbrush monster

brain tofu

my favourite cat

still a kid really

monkey boy

scared

stretch

hiding from the sun

bumpy road

time for a rest

not walking any further

holding up the arch

fortified wall

hold on tight

rough road

steep climb up

on a mission

yuanyang window

not going anywhere

very steep

perfect place for a handstand

stop taking pictures dammit

long way down

scared stiff

up above the world so high

what's on the other side

come a long way

arabian ajun

lush greenery

smiley face

two grannies on the wall

weaving through the workers

refurbishing the wall

dandelion clock 1

rocky road on

overgrown section of the wall

before the wall

across to simatai

you've gotta pay to cross

the three musketeers

simatai great wall

ropeway

yippee

middle of nowhere

girls on the ropeway 25

tangled up

boat to the town

simatai

From Wikipedia:

Xi’an (西安) is the capital of the Shaanxi province in the People’s Republic of China and a sub-provincial city. As one of the oldest cities in Chinese history, Xi’an is one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China because it has been the capital (under various names) of some of the most important dynasties in Chinese history, including the Zhou, Qin, Han, the Sui, and Tang dynasties. Xi’an is the eastern terminus of the Silk Road and known as the site of the Terracotta Army, made during the Qin Dynasty. The city has more than 3,100 years of history, and was known as Chang’an 長安 before the Ming Dynasty .

We’re getting the train this evening – as it’s all been a bit last minute preparation, we were only able to get our hands on ‘hard seater’ tickets – so it’s going to be a rough ride through the night. We will be arriving there at 8:30am tomorrow morning looking rather groggy! Hopefully get at least a couple of hours of sleep during the night!

I doubt I’ll get a chance to update the blog on the road – so you’ll have to wait until I get back for updates and pictures.

The Temple of Heaven, literally the Altar of Heaven (天坛) is a complex of Taoist buildings situated in southeastern urban Beijing, in Xuanwu District. The complex was visited by the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties for annual ceremonies of prayer to Heaven for good harvest. It is regarded as a Taoist temple, although Chinese Heaven worship, especially by the reigning monarch of the day, pre-dates Taoism.

After almost two years in China, I decided to get myself over to the Temple of Heaven and pay a visit to this magnificent building before I head back home in August. We had some fine weather for taking pictures and it was well worth the entrance ticket – even if they didn’t have student discount!

Tiling

Intricate Tiles

Temple of Heaven

Leaning Temple of Heaven

Hey

Breeze

Before the Temple

Temple of Heaven

Blue Sky Day

晒

Siqi Looking Tall

Round and Round

Up we go

Fine Day

View from a distance

Holding up the temple

One Handed

Beacon Boy

Mini Temple

View all the way up

陶然亭公园

Pagoda

From “Visit Miyun“:

Yunmeng Mountain National Forest Park extends over 2208 acres of land in the western part of Miyun. The main peak is 1414m high and the forest is lush with abundant plants and wildlife.

Last week I was out and about quite a lot until the weather deteriorated towards the weekend. On Sunday I decided to go walkies and ended up getting a long distance bus to Yunmeng Mountain ((云蒙山)) in Miyun District (密云) – which is a lovely scenic rural region to the north of Beijing. The mountain is over 1400m in height, amongst the highest of the mountains surrounding Beijing. Despite much lack of exercise recently, I still managed to stride up to the top despite the hot sun beating down and covered what should have been a three hour route in just an hour and a half – obviously my lungs haven’t been completely smogged out yet.

On top, I ran into some Chinese students who had just finished their exams and were also out for the day. We chatted for a while and in the end I walked down the mountain together with them. It turned out that they were local to the area and one of them had a house just by the entrance to the park. They invited me over for lunch and we all enjoyed an assortment of homely Chinese dishes along with some ice-cool beverages. It was lovely to meet such hospitable people and I think they also enjoyed chatting to a foreigner as most tourists don’t like to venture that far out of Beijing.

Motorway all the way

The Peak

Knackered

At the summit

Made it

Some students I met

Tricycle Ride

Out for a ride

Me and Zhou

Local Farm

Delicious Lunch

The Tanzhe Temple (Chinese: 潭柘寺; pinyin: Tán Zhè Sì; literally “Temple of Pool and Zhe Tree”) is a Buddhist temple situated in the Western Hills, a mountainous area in western Beijing. It is one of the oldest and most well-known temples in Beijing. At one time, it was one of the most important temples in the nation. Built in the Jin Dynasty (265–420), it has an age of around 1,700 years.

The temple itself is situated within the Western Hills in a lovely woodland area and it was nice to find a calm tourist spot with relatively few noisy tour groups visiting each day. Surprisingly for a Chinese tourist attraction, most signs were also translated into Japanese, English and Korean and the ticket price for the attraction was very reasonable (£2.20 for students). I spent the morning wandering around taking some photos and breathing in the incessant perfume of burning incense. It’s lovely to escape from the chaos of Beijing, even if it’s just for a few hours. There is something very atmospheric and ancient about this place – some of the trees were over a thousand years old and many of the buildings had been around for a similar amount of time.

潭柘寺

福海殊轮

Ancient Tree

Nice Roofing

Reaching Upwards

Rooftop Guardians

Coiled Incense

Lovely Setting

Turtle Mania

You heard...

Tiger Head Water Feature

Water Spout

View from the top

Dragon Pool