Guilin - Guangxi province in the South

We arrived in Guilin late on a night so we just chilled out in the hostel, also equipped with dvd and pool table and Sam and Jack got a bottle of the local 53% spirit, which according to the look of Sam the next day really did the job. Guilin is a strange place because if you can imagine a city like Manchester and then you turn around and see a flat landscape with huge peaks just rising out of no where you get quite a sense of amazement. The reaks arent part of range of hill or mountain they are just huge mounds that rise up and each peak in Guilin has at least one cave because of the way that they were formed so the south is a really nice place to take in some scenery. The next day we went to see Reed Flute Cave, which is just a massive cave inside a hill tht has various roack formatins inside resembling things like mushrooms, curtains and then you have got the classic stalagmites and stalagtites. Also we went on short bamboo raft ride on a nearby lake which was good, we got to steer and there was a guy on the banks playing a chinese flute type instrument and eventhough the day was slightly gold and the usual overcast gray sky the guy playing his flute was really easy to listen so so we enjoyed the raft alot more. Tomorrow we head off for Yangshuo which is only a short distance from Guilin, which is meant to be a popular hang out for backpackers and its more senic thn Guilin.

Chengdu, Emie Shan and Leshan - Sichuan province

When we arrived in Chengdu we went to a so called hostel calld the loft. This place rivalled the boulder for sheer coolness of accomodation. Free internet, pool table, ps2, dvd player ll in a converted loft space that was just the absolute business and all for 1 pound a night! In Chengdu we went to the Giant Panda Research Base. Seeing pandas just chilling out eating their own weight in bamboo was pretty cool. We also saw the Red Panda, which is more closely related to the racoon, where as the Giant Panda is more related to various bears.

We also did a trip to see the largest seated buddha statue in the world at 71m high in Leshan, that was certainly a neck strainer. Also from Leshan we went to Emie Shan where we didnt climb as much as Hua Shan, it is more jungle like rather than rock like Hua shan, instead we just walked around going into various temples and seeing the wild monkeys that ravage you for food. Then we made our way back to Chengdu where we stayed at the awsome Loft again as the next say we left for Guiylin, in the South in Guangxi province. A 36 hour train journey was quite fun.

Climbing Hua Shan, near Xi'an

We set off to climb Hua Shan quite late so we got to the bottom at around 6pm, at that point we proceded to climb with our backpacks for 4 hours in darkness, only with our torch to lead the way. Most of it was more or less vertical chains in which you grab onto to haul your self up the rock that has steps probably 2 inches deep. So Climbing the '1000 foot ladder' on an empty stomach in the dark was pretty tough. We managed to find some where to stay which was maybe the best place we have ever stayed in...literally a boulder that some poor person has bothered to chisel out the entire middle of. We finally settled down and at around 10pm or so and then had to be up the next morning at 4am for an hours hike to the East Peak where we could see the sunrise. All the hard work the night before was well worth the view. Then we had to get the cable car back down and the bus back to Xi'an becvause we had a 30 hour over night train to catch to Chengdu.