Gui Xing Hotel Guilin

... vie lors de leur mariage. Ils sont donc tres longs et places en une coiffure particuliere sur la tete. Pour signifier leur interet, les hommes pilent sur le pied de la demoiselle qu'ils aiment. En retour, les femmes leur pincent les fesses. Nous avons goute a de petites bouchees au sesame locales. A la sortie, nous avons eu un petit shooter (alcool de riz) tout en nous faisant pincer les fesses (tres fort) par deux rangees de femmes Yao. Nous ...

... Chinese city. There were a few beautiful limestone peaks and a nice pagoda here and there, but very little else. Drinks were very, very expensive (3pound fifty for a cocktail) so very little celebrating was done to mark my 26th birthday. But, we're travelling for a year - so I can't really complain.

THURSDAY 17TH SEPT

We were up and out by 7am to go on a trip to the Dragon backbone rice terraces. We had read it took 2 buses and 3 hours to ...

Our experience of Hong Kong left us bewildered. It has us wondering why? Of course we were only there for less than 24 hours however what we experienced was shopping chaos and mishmash of point of sale. Expensive hell, maybe consumer heaven (not for me) but with remarkably efficient transport system. Needless to say we were pleased to be leaving. Our escape route was a flight from Shenzhen to Guilin. Seemingly simple? No First a Taxi to Kowloon station then ...

... chamber again. In the morning, we had only one full day in Guilin and we were leaving that night. Sarah wanted to go for a run and explore so she did that, while me and Caroline went out to find a place for breakfast, explore, and hike around a little. We strolled down the streets onto the main road and into the central area of the city. It is such an amazing, warm, and slow paced city. It was so relaxing and the people were so much different than Shanghainese. Not rushed and ...

... so needless to say I didn't win a medal. Trying to shake off 9 years of rust without any practice beforehand in front of a crowd of well over a thousand was tough, but the students at least got a kick out of a western participant, since myself and another American doing the shot-put and discus were the only westerners who took part. The whole weekend experience was very interesting as temporary shops lined the campus roads selling food ...

After leaving Xi'an, we caught a plane to Guilin. But this was not our final destination. We still had a ways to go. We drove through the mountains then had a 45 minute hike uphill to near the tops of the mountains to see the rice terraces and the Yao people, one of the minority groups of China. They are the group that have the women grow their hair very long, and never cut it. The women were also our porters to bring up our luggage in their ...

... cliffs along the Li River. It also boasts such Chinese standbys as rocks that look like ****, mountains that look like ****, and a famous cave lit by big colored lights with - you guessed it - stalactites that look like ****. Being such a prominent toursit destination, Guilin charges twice as much as it should for everything. After climbing "Guilin's #1 ...

... made for tall people (and not that I'm that tall either). I was unable to stretch completely out, but compared to sitting in a seat for 18 hrs, it was gold. There were 3 rows of bunk beds in this bus, so lots of room. Although it wasn't the smoothest ride in the world, I still managed to sleep some of the way. Not that you get the greatest sleep in the world on a ...

... The price is great as well...100 Yuan each. We gave Kim her own private room. Big spenders...it's $14 a night per room! After settling in we got the cook's tour of the town, met some of Kim's friends from her earlier visits and got a great buy from a friend on some Chinese porcelain. It's packaged well. Sure hope it makes it home! We also got to visit MC Blues Cafe run by Kim and Ryan's friend Mickey. He was glad to see her and joined us at the ...

... I couldn't see where I was going, that I would have felt 'safer' walking a little slower up the stairs (the floors in the cave were wet as well as being slippery in a few places)or that there were other people in the way. We just did not know if she was a tourist like us, or if she was going to ask for money at the end of the tour as she had assisted us. Walking along the mall, a man approached our group and started talking to mum. We just kept walking along the mall, and he ...