你好南西中国

(Hello south west China that is, who said learning Chinese was difficult, I'm almost fluent in 2 weeks)

Arriving off the train from Hong Kong in Guangzhou, Alastair was conned almost immeadiately, paying nearly 4 times what I should have done for a taxi. Guangzhou itself wasn't a particularly very nice place, with a really dusty atmosphere and the continual threat of thunder storms my highlight here has to be the nice little Starbucks I found on the old British Shamian island. I say no more on this place.

After negotiating a chaotic queue for train tickets (wasn't really a queue, more a scrumage) I was curious at how I, speaking no Chinese, can get my hands on a ticket so much quicker than the locals do. Why do they all insist on shouting and arguing with the sales person? Actually this was just their normal volume and manner of talking, something I was going to have to get used to. After a disturbed sleep on an overnight train from Guangzhou, more yelling and early morning phone calls, I arrived in Guilin.

Guilin, a bit of a tourist magnet, was a giant relief after my first experience of China. A relaxed and picturesque city surrounded by sharp limestone peaks, I became rather comfortable in my hostel and was reluctantly persuaded to leave by a fellow traveller. Around the city are some truly breathtaking sights, a cruise down the Li river amongst numerous more dramatic pinnacles of rock lead to Yangshou, a pleasant town where tourists congregate on mass. A trip to the Longji Titian rice terraces provided post card perfect views of a real life contour map, farmed from a local village, Pang'an, which is inhabited by a minority called the Yao. The Yao hold the Guinness world record for being the longest hair village in the world. Impressive, but declined the opportunity to pay to see them get their hair out.

One theme I noticed fairly soon, though it wasn't very subtle at times, is that there is always someone trying to sell you something in China. Be it locals annoyingly following you around with postcards and picture books or someone who you think quite innocently just wants to chat to you on the street, but infact works for the best tour company in town. One must be vigilant and strongly resist these approaches or else money flies out of your pockets before you know it.

Moving onto Yunnan province and the capital Kunming, blessed with a milder climate this modern city has a mix of old and new. Watching older people perform early morning Tai Chi beneath traditional Chinese arches, whilst across the street employees of the baby photography studio do their morning exercise/dance routine outside shiney new shopping complexes. A swift round of temples, pagodas and parks around the city before heading to the bus station and buying a ticket enitrely in Chinese, albeit very disjointed, I got what I wanted.

In the north of Yunnan province I visited Lijiang. A strange city, in a beautiful setting surrounded by mountains, I arrived in a sprawl of dirty new buildings with wide open streets. After a few hours of being lost I eventually stumbled across the atmospheric old town (where I wanted to be), a complete contrast with traditional wooden Naxi houses winding down a labyrinth of narrow cobble alleyway ways, completely traffic free and at night lit up by red latterns. Feeling as though I might have stepped back in time a few hundred years, I settled into a attractive and simple little hostel drank some Lu Cha, before venturing out and realising yes it is the 21st century still. The tranquil cafes that lined the stream by day became haven for drinking and banging house music by night.

After a few days of overpriced world heritage sights around Lijiang, and sweatily ascending a big hill for a good view of Yulong Xue Shan (snow mountain) it was time for a return to Kunming and to see hte rest of China. I jumped on the sleeper bus, with a bed about 6 inches too short and 4 inches too narrow I squeezed in between two Chinese blokes for another unsettled night in transit.