Jing Xiu Hotel - Guilin

... and the villages remain a blast from the past; even if most of the buildings are guesthouses. The views are staggering. It's the kind of place that makes you reach for the camera every 50 paces. Or whenever there is an opening in the trees. There is something inherently foreign about the terraces, as there is with the karst peaks at Guilin. They're just that different. We spent three days hiking in the terraces, at one ...

... remember what 7 was so they can't be that bloody popular! <br><br>Arrived in Guilin after 6 hours on the train (which flew with all the entertainment) and poor old Zhong Ling was spotted with us by an Australian lady who stole her from us so she could get help booking her train ticket. As I said, English speakers are rare in China! We got her email address and phone number anyway as she has tempted us to go visit her home town which she claims has the biggest ...

... stairs into the Vietnamese border area...<br>... which was a total free for all. Far from the land of queues, this border control spot involved pushing your way to one of the little ovals in the glass divide between us and the passport staff and then chucking your passport onto a shelf in front of them. Expect all vietnamese passports to go first and then for your passport to be ushered back and forth until the guy who ...

... whipped out the hotel card (never leave you hotel without one of their cards) and he said ok. One block down one block over and one block up and I was back at the hotel. I could not believe it. I had wonder the maze of back alleys for hours thinking I was going in one direction but was going in circles only blocks from the hotel. Grab a snack at the little bakery across from the hotel and went back to my room for a fresh bread and tea ...

... weekend because a college friend and fraternity brother were doing business in China and had a weekend free in Hong Kong. It was a quick weekend trip that was made exhausting by two night train rides back and forth, but definitely worth the momentary escape to western civilazation and the rare opportunity to see friends I've known prior to this year. The friend from college, Matt Cavin, was a business classmate at Valpo and was the ...

Na 112. dan najinega potovanja sva koncno prispela v drzavo, ki sva se jo ze dalj casa neizmerno veselila obiskati. Kljub temu naju je Kitajska skoraj v vseh pogledih nadvse sokirala. Od popotnikov, ki sva jih srecala tekom potovanja sva sicer slisala zelo nasprotujoce si informacije in kaj kmalu sva ugotovila, da Kitajsko razlicni ljudje zelo razlicno dozivijo. Midva se ze na samem mejnem prehodu nisva mogla nacuditi urejenosti in redu, ki je povsod tako ociten. Kmalu za tem ...

OK... with that beast of a blog done and dusted, here comes his little brother :) We arrived in Xi'An pretty early in the morning, feeling slightly tired... sleeping on a train that's stopping and starting isn't the best way to catch forty winks, but it definitely beats buses!! We decided to grab something to eat and then head out to explore the town a little, did a bit of bargaining in the Muslim Quarter (which is supposed to be the cheapest part ...

... to contemplate, but at least most viewers would have been asleep and not noticed them! Anyway, after that we turned off the telly, grateful that we had arranged to meet our guide no earlier than 10.30 the next morning. Saturday 9th August Alison: I had brekky with the kids and then we met our guide Ada in the foyer, a very nice girl with pretty good English. She first took us to Duxiu Feng ...

... the whole time, all by hand. Once the tree was down it was time for me to move on. We were told it was only a 4 hr trip up there, so I thought if we left super early (around 8 am) we would get there with enough time to hike around, stay the night and head back. Well as I've learned here in China, you need a lot of patience and need to be flexible. We didn't end up getting there till closer to 3 pm, so two nights were needed. No big deal as I'm not ...

... we got to the top there was one other tourist - a Chinese women and her husband. The women insisted that we take a photo together - and it was very peaceful and wonderful looking across the valley. Yesterday's tour was a different story. After being repeatedly pestered to buy water and drinks from elderly women who grab our arms and kept saying "helllooo" - "helllooo" you buy water, you buy water, we told them we were cheap and skin ...