Lijing Hotel Liuzhou

Sanjiang, literally "the three rivers" in English, the Rong River, Xun River and Miao River meet and twist through the county, hence the name. Located in the north Guangxi, China, the region is traditionally inhabited by the Dong people and about 4hrs drive from Guilin. During the Spring Festival (2009), I visited this beautiful and ethnic county.<br> <br> <br>The first day, I visited the Chengyang Wind and Rain Bridge Scenic Area. The area is ...

... i look at some caves first. The next morning (today) I woke up fairly early as usual and expected to set out early. But I couldn't find the guide so again I felt trapped and hated not being able to do things on my own. Eventually he came back and we finally set off at 11. If you know me well you know I usually get up at 6 or 7 so getting moving at 11 is kinds late, especially when I'm travelling. We walked ...

... Otherwise, there are steamed buns filled with delicious meat and veggie concoctions, making for a quick and easy breakfast as opposed to a slurpy and messy one. Other meals are more of a production involving the whole family and many dishes. There is also some form of ridiculous karaoke in the background, whether just from a dvd or someone painfully singing along. Usually, we sit around a circular table with a lazy susan in the middle, making it easy to pass the 8-10 dishes laid out in ...

... the course of one meal - unbelievable. Nonetheless, I managed to experience a range of fresh and healthy dishes before we venture into the greasy cuisine typical of China. We'll see what kind of adventure that yields. For now, I'll just sit back and enjoy the beautiful views of everyday life on the rice paddies, full of water buffaloes and Vietnamese workers in conical hats - just stunning. Wish I had more time to venture down to Saigon but China beckons this time...

... aisle between her bed and mine so I could stretch out, but it was still not very comfortable as the back of the bus was very bumpy. Not long after we started the bus stopped and the two extra passengers got off, as we had to go through a police post. After the police came on board and had a quick look around, we started up again, then stopped a short distance from the police post to wait for the extra passengers. After about half an hour the bus started up again, and the ...

... sure that all of us, our open beer cans, our cameras and our passports were all going for an unwanted swim in the river. Meanwhile, the other rafters and the people selling goods along the river started cheering and snapping photos. Somehow, we ended right-side-up only minus a few water bottles we'd been keeping under our chairs. We bought an in-action photo from a business in the middle of the ...

... Ich bin gerade in Yangshuo, einer Kleinstadt in der es im Sommer wohl nur so von Touristen und Backpackern wimmelt, die Stadt in die die Chinesen gehen, wenn sie Englisch lernen wollen. Ich volentiere gerade ein wenig in einem Englisch College. Ich sitze jeden Abend in der English Corner und unterhalte mich mit Chinesen. Das haette ich mit nie zu traeumen gewagt, dass man mir ...

... her store as shown on the right. After her speaking some Mandarin and us smiling we decided to treat it like a Mongolian BBQ. We pointed out the beef and then some of the veggies, mushroom, peppers, onion, snap peas etc and left her to it. Sure enough see stir-fried it up for us. Marvellous. Plenty of lovely freshly cooked food and a couple of 660ml beers for 25 Yuan (£1.50). In the evening we hit the 10 pin bowling alley which kept us and the locals amused for a few hours.

... to hold the brush bolt upright- I guess I'm used to holding it in much the same way as a pen or pencil. The correct technique is also to hold it from the end furthest away from the hairs, which apparently helps with the finer strokes but left me feeling like I was back to finger-painting, I made such a mess of it! Even when I'd finally started to perfect one or two strokes, I was obviously still missing something; the teacher tried to help me by making his own ...

... a power cut for around an hour, but fortunately it didn't interrupt the day too much. I saw a rather classic scooter / pedestrian collision on the way to dinner. It was at extremely low speed (I don't even know why the rider was bothering, he'd have been quicker walking), and no-one was hurt. But the shouting, gesticulating and general mayhem that ensued would make an Italian crash look like a ladies' tea party...