(Jim) Consider the toilet. No, this is not another political commentary on Hillary Clinton's bitter campaign for the Democratic nomination, now thankfully over. This is an actual post about an actual toilet. Before reading another sentence, please take a moment to consider whether you actually want to read this post. It is not a pretty story, th...

Yangshou is set on the Li River in Guangxi Provence and is a great escape for western tourists. Everyone here speaks English and you can get western food. The town is set amongst picturesque mountains and the region has been an inspiration to many Chinese poets and painters. The limestone pinnacles come from when the area was once an ocean 190 m...

Yangshuo, was only a very short journey from our last destination...so we were still very much surrounded by the jutting out mountains. The town was very compact and easy to walk around.....probably the most touristy place we had been too. We spent the first day on a river cruise - when the earthquake happened. The scenery was amazing and very p...

By the time we docked in Yángshuň, the day had finally brightened up. We barely disembarked on a concrete wharf and were in short order swarmed by myriads of vultures, i.e. people who regarded us, newly arrived tourists, as nothing more than a potential milk cow. No farther than on concrete stairs leading up to the walkway from, or to, the harbo...

Yangshuo is the first 'backpacker" town that we arrived in. A must for anyones China itinerary. It is the launching point for the famous Li River cruises. We had a better time walking along the Li river enjoying the countryside than when we did the cruise. We took solace in the fact that we each payed 10 dollars to do it rather than the tourist ...

Someone up there still likes us. When I got up it wasn't to the sound of rain beating on the roof. I climbed upstairs to my lookout post and saw a cloudy and relatively clear day. Good enough. We were going biking. Bike scams are supposed to be fairly common here and some people ask up to $50 deposit for a bicycle. I was prepared for a fight but...

Our arrival in Yangshuo was approaching damp, in addition to which we got into town in the mid afternoon. We had to defend ourselves from a scam before even reaching the town. A little outside of town, the bus is stopped by a tout and the bus driver tells us this is Yangshuo and we need to get off. We had been warned about this and refused. Our ...

At an internet cafe again trying to upload my photos. This can only mean one thing: I have a lot of time on my hands again, and not much to do today. I'm in Yangshuo now, just south of the infamous Guilin (the place that features a lot in scenic images you see of China, with the Li River and limestone karsts). I got here early this morning from ...

So with yet another night train to catch we arrived at Wuhan train station to experience surely the worst toilets in the world ever. I can only describe the smell as 4 tons of rotting animal carcasses sauteed in 5000 litres of amonia. I'd take a Monday morning festival toilet ahead of these any day of the week. On the train me and Ben, Karen and...

Me and my two new friends decided to make our way to Yangshou by bus as it wasn`t too far. We arrived in Yangshou where we were met by a young lad saying that he knew of our booking etc and sent us in different directions, i was put up in a gusthouse and my friends were a little closer to town, he was trying to get sales, he got sales, we got be...