Zhong Shan Guilin

... trudged our way up the hill anyway, in sweltering heat, to see the magnificent view over the city – only to find that even here there is incredible city smog! The karsts still looked very impressive however, especially in the mist. Simon was however more excited about the snake he has spotted on the way up the hill and spent most of his time looking in the undergrowth for more snakes. On the way back down our efforts from the climb were fully rewarded as saw a group of semi wild ...

... a pathway. The guide called it the Prince's pathway. It was only allowed to be used by the Prince. Now however anybody can walk on it. After crossing the courtyard I came to the stone balustrade. It is similar to the ones found in the Forbidden City, but with some major differences. First, it is nowhere as big. Secondly, there is not a dragon to be seen. The dragon was the symbol of the emperor, and only he was allowed to use it. Since the Prince, was second to the emperor, he ...

... thanks, maybe i can find mine! <br><br>.....anyways, today is our first day of orientation. Just thought i would update everyone about our stay in Yongshou! Its been exciting and we have meet people from all over. It definitely takes some getting used to here- This is night and day from Hong Kong! very different being in real china... I haven't been able to use much internet because we dont have it in the rooms and also facebook is BLOCKED IN CHINA!! along with ...

... cigarette has about 10 mg of 'tar' in it. This 'tar' is a mix of some, but not all, of the horrible ingredients in cigarettes. It is not actually a component of the asphalt used today to pave roads, but it might resemble (slightly... humour me) an expensive component used to bind asphalt called 'asphaltic cement', or AC. This AC comprises about 5 % of asphalt and is an expensive component. What ...

... Norea and Sian that we met in Xi'an so it was good to see some friendly faces. At 12 there was massive amounts of fireworks going off everywhere. I mean everywhere. It was pretty spectactular. People we lighting fireworks from their hands and bangers were going off within 5 yards of you. You would never get it in England due to the health and safety beauracrats but it felt completely safe until you gave a firework to an American who had no clue what they were doing.

... of the boat... it's a traditional method of fishing done on the Yulong river, where cormorants catch fish, but cannot swallow them because of a ring around their necks... The fishermen then remove the fish and put the birds back in the water to fish some more. At the end of their run for the evening, the birds get rewarded with a few fish, and the fishermen take home their catch... it sounds like it's not much fun for the cormorants, but the ...

... together with beer fish and river snail. D5: Visiting the limestone cave called Yinzi Yan on the suburbs of Yangshuo. The stones which glare under the light due to the substance they contain, make this cave different from others. It got the name for the same reason. After the visit, again walking in Yangshuo. To my big regret, I could not go further into the countryside on bike ...

This morning I took a 5 hour cruise on the Li River. The river is amazingly beautiful ...

... anyway. After breakfast we headed towards the railway station. According to the timetable, the train for Nánníng departed at 8:26, which meant we arrived at least half an hour too early. We entered the railway station building and then squeezed into what struck me as the most crowded waiting room in the world. Few days before, I had thought that it had been crowded in Nánníng. This thing in Guìlín broke all ...