We stayed in “The Hump”, a massive and rather lively place right in the city centre for three nights. It’s in a very noisy area, right next to a street full of bars and clubs – hence the provision of free earplugs for all guests – but it’s great as a base from where you can set out each day to explore one of China’s youngest and most vibrant cities.

We spent our first day wandering around the Flower and Bird market, which aside from being famous for the hordes of peddlers selling pet dogs and cats on the street outside, also sells lots of nice arts and crafts as well as clothes and bags. We then wandered around some of the old streets of Kunming – which unfortunately seem to be taking a similar turn to the hutongs of Beijing, being torn down and replaced with brand new multi-storey characterless concrete shopping blocks.

After spending our first day in the city, we took advantage of the great weather and hopped on a bus out to the Western Hills where we did a good 2 or 3 hour hike to the summit (as well as a short hitch on horseback for one section) from where we gained a great view over the enormous Dian Chi lake and the city of Kunming. From there we took a cablecar down the mountain and hopped onto the bus back to the city centre.

After a couple of restful days in the city, it was time to get back out into real China once again – so the following day we hopped onto an express bus to Jianshui and arrived there in the evening. Jianshui lies three or four hours south-east of Kunming and is only just making it’s name as a tourist destination – which is a good thing. That mean’s cheap accommodation, cheap food, original architecture rather than buildings being torn down and rebuilt and best of all – nobody harassing you to go on tours. I think we only say about 5 or 6 foreigners during the three nights we stayed there!

Jianshui’s biggest attraction – aside from it’s own impressive Chinese architecture within the old town – is the Swallow Cave that is just 20km outside of town. The cave is absolutely enormous and is full of swallows which nest on the roof, hence the name. It is Asia’s biggest water cave and a tour around the inside (along with cheesy music and brightly coloured lights in true chinese style) takes a good two or three hours and is very impressive.

For the daring, you can also pay an extra fee to have a go at climbing up a 20 metre overhanging cave wall to the Chinese flag hanging at the top. Siqi wasn’t keen, however I was up for the challenge and completed the climb in about 6 minutes – certainly much harder than going up the dry grippy walls of Kendal climbing wall!

Finally, we spent our last day in Jianshui visiting a traditional chinese bridge not far out of town as well as walking around a traditional village further up the valley which was full of old houses and lanes – we could even make out some characters painted on the eaves on one building which turned out to be original propaganda left over from the Cultural Revolution!

Apart from that, the rest of our time in Jianshui was spent eating and drinking, particularly tasting the local speciality of barbecued fermented tofu dipped in a spicy peanut sauce which turned out to be delicious, especially when washed down with a 20p fresh mango smoothie!

Today we are back on the express bus and will be arriving in Kunming this evening, time to stock up on plenty of food and snacks for the 28 hour train side back to Beijing tomorrow evening – we managed to get hard sleeper tickets before leaving for Jianshui with no problems.

So that’s it then, almost the end of a fantastic four weeks of travelling around the south of China. We’ve met some great people, seen lots of beautiful places and eaten and drunk to our hearts content. I’d happily continue for a little longer but I must get back to Beijing and sort all my stuff out in preparation for the long flight home. Photos of the trip may take a while – we’ve taken a staggering 1366 of then, although I’m sure once I’ve got rid of the blurred ones and duplicates I might well half that number. More updates before I leave!

Mobile upload. Date: 1st August, 2009

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.

Mobile upload. Date: 29th July, 2009

Mobile upload. Date: 29th July, 2009

Mobile upload. Date: 27th July, 2009

Mobile upload. Date: 27th July, 2009

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!

Mobile upload. Date: 24th July, 2009

Mobile upload. Date: 24th July, 2009