Yin Hai Villa Wutaishan

Wutaishan was one of our greatest disasters to date.Hee and there's been a few. I booked a hostel which gave directions to Wutaishan bus station but was in fact in Nanning- a whole other provence. Oops.<br>Pretty place, once we'd finally checked into somewhere in our price range. It was the coldest place I've ever been. The water in the river had frozen solid! We had pot noodles in bed and tried some rice wine, (evil smelling stuff) and quickly got on a bus out of there! <br>Love Lucy xxx<br>

... this since Lord Baggott's Secret Luxury Appartment in the Riviera... <br><br>After forcing ourselves not to hide away in the hotel room for 2 days we went out on a tour of the famous hanging temples and caves. The temples are over 2000 years old and suspended 100 meters above ground on a sheer cliff face, the caves even older full of buddhist carvings. Both of these were amazing, as you will see on the photos....<br><br>

... terrace jsme pred chramem potkali 2 cerne lisky. Nejprve jsme k nim meli docela respekt, ale nakonec jsme se skamaradili a lisky jsme nakrmili cinskymi piskoty, ktere nam uz prilis nejeli. Nejvetsi zajimavost chramu byla v tom, ze nemel zadny vchod, pouze provizorni diru ve zdi. V chramu prave probihala rozsahla rekonstrukce, jelikoz se pripravoval na dokonceni pevne cesty a masivni priliv turistu.<br><br><br><br>Z chramu jsme se vydali zpet ...

... si nas prehazuji jako horky brambor. Nakonec se rozdelujeme do dvou skupin. Ja s Adelou jdeme do hospody a hlidame krosny vsech. Jenda a Stavi jdou hledat ubytovani i do odlehlejsich mist.<br> Mezi nasi objednavkou si Adela odskoci na toaletu. Ta je vyresena jako cerna dira, kde se..te spolecne se psiky a za ohradkou se.e mistni krava. (stezovat si na zachododiry spolecne sdilene s ostatnimi lidmi byl ...

Des nouvelles depuis Wutai Shan! Wow, Banff et Lake Louise peuvent bien aller se cacher, les montagnes ici sont malades (meme si elles sont pleines de charbon et que l'air est irrespirable!). C'est un petit village en creux de vallee entre 5 montagnes qui culminent jusqu'a environ 3000 metres. Le village lui meme se trouve a 1600 metres. Ici, toutes les cours ont leur petit tas de charbon et les gens s'en servent allegrement pour tout, chauffer l'eau, faire a manger, chauffer les maisons ...

Woke up in a hotel with no electricity (see we do slum it sometimes!) and headed to the... <br>JUST WATCHED SOMEONE SPIT DOWN THE SIDE OF A CHAIR IN THE INTERNET SHOP - GROSS<br><br>Next we had a 3 hour coach journey and met some more nice locals, we were on our way to one of the most holly spots in China with more than 52 temples spread across the Wu Tai Shaun mountain range - it was time to look at ...

... two minute walk outside to get to the toilets. It's amazing how a little thing like that teaches you some self control. The town itself is peaceful enough. There are lots of monasteries around, far more than I would ever wish to visit, and about half the people you see walking the streets are monks or nuns ofone denomination or another. Red, yellow and grey robes were all in evidence, if that means anything to anyone. There didn't seem to be anything of ...

We've been in China a week now and have had to re-evaluate what we are going to be able to see. We completely under-estimated the size of the country and have had to write off alot of locations (Tibet included unfortunately). But back to Pingyao. We arrived at 5am to Yamen Hostel. Its a great hostel with antique Chinese furniture a couple of hundred years old. Really nice place to stay ...

... by the mixed (and suddenly surging) crowd of unruly toddlers, old folks, farmers, and businessmen who also seemingly had not been assigned seats... it was going to be a no holds barred battle to get on this train, and I was at a distinct disadvantage in body odour, phlegm production and willingness to eliminate small children in my way. The end result, was me standing with my bag, stuffed face to armpit with the rest of the sweating masses and trying to ...

... on or something. To the left of the monastery is a long snaking stairway with the middle having a dragon's head where people can walk through the mouth to view the other side of the canyon, kind of like walking "through the dragon's belly". We have to wait to walk through the monastery and once we get inside you realize that a thousand other people are inside at the same moment and you cant help but wonder how this old place can hold all the ...