We stayed at Sean's Guesthouse at Walnut Garden, with the most amazing view straght onto the gorge from our £2.50 a night room!

The next morning we set off - the hike was a real challenge, for the nerves as much as for the legs, with a sheer drop of several thousand feet next to a path only a few feet wide cut into the mountain side. My heart still beats faster just thinking about it, particularly remembering negotiating obstacles like the waterfall running over the path!

At the end of the first day's walking we stayed at the Naxi family guesthouse with excellent food and a very warm welcome.

The next day we made our way slowly to Qiaotou, and began the long trip towards home.

Tiger Leaping Gorge remains copyright of the author magykal1, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Zhongdian is a slightly wild and rugged town in the middle of a grassy plain grazed by yaks, surrounding by huge snow-capped mountains.

It snowed as we arrived and continued to be cold - well it is winter, at 11,000 feet.

The local Tibetans are famous for two things, we're told - knives and fierce dogs. Don't see too many knives, but do encounter some fierce dogs on a walk up to some rather lovely temples surrounded by prayer flags hanging from trees.

We met some chinese-speaking Americans, who rather usefully negotiated us a Tibetan hotpot at pretty much the only place in town that was open.

Next morning we went to the Sompasteling Monastery, one of the most amazing buildings I've ever seen, a higgledy-piggledy complex of big white temples filled with luridly covered carvings and buzzing with activity, particularly from the monks.

We spent the afternoon driving around the surrounding area, looking at Tibetan houses, lakes and yak meadows.

Stayed at the Himalayan Garden Inn, which wasn't really open but they rented us a room anyway.

Zhongdian remains copyright of the author magykal1, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Some of the 'experience' is almost unbearably tacky though, particularly the 'Bar Street' where Chinese tourists come to get drunk with other chinese dressed in ethnic costume.

The town is undeniably beautiful though, and we spent a whole day just wandering round - particularly the view across to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain from the black dragon pool park, where we sat and drank delicious local tea for a few hours, watching the goldfish and staring at the snow.

We also spent a day cycling to a few of the local villages - one, Shuhe, was another 'reconstuction' which exists purely for the purposes of tour groups - pretty, but with no soul - some nice views over the mountains though. Another, Baishu, was a lovely working village with genuine Naxi farmhouses and an obvious working life.

Some great food in Lijiang - particularly the local Naxi barbecued fish and fried rice with cured ham, also a sizzling Yak platter!

We stayed at the excellent Moon Inn with very friendly staff and a comfortable room, and views over the old town and the mountain.

Lijiang remains copyright of the author magykal1, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

I spent one day taking Kung-Fu lessons on the North gate of the Old Town, with a Chinese fella who had spent ten years training in a Shaolin temple. Ouch, they make you do horrible stretches and all sorts, learnt quite a lot for a day.

Ate some tremendous stuff, including a casserole of the local river fish, some kind of spicy chicken thing, some great dumplings, a tibetan lamb stew and the local potato pancake (suspiciously similar to Rosti).

Also, went cormorant fishing - this is where the fishermen use trained cormorants to catch fish in the lake, and the cormorants regurgitate them into a bucket. Fantastic!

Stayed at the Dali old town inn where the nice ensuite double room was a bargain 100 yuan, and there was a nice leafy courtyard and viewing platform with views of the mountain, staff could have been a bit more helpful though.

Dali remains copyright of the author magykal1, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Well, real, modern, westernised China anyway. Kunming is an attractive (apart from a bit smoggy), quite leafy city with wide streets and flashy new buildings all over.

We spent quite a lot of time trying to arrange tickets for the sleeper train to Guilin, which ultimately proved fruitless.

Also spent a lot of time wandering - Chinese folk seem to go about their daily business as you would expect from the clips you see, biking around with massive loads of fruit and clothes tied on to trailers, playing cards across tables laid out in the street etc.

Had a good, if fiery, Thai meal on the top floor of the Sakura hotel, with great views over the city and terrifying lifts that go up the outside of the building.

Stayed at the Camellia Hotel, along with pretty much everyone else from our flight apparently. Not luxury compared to our Hong Kong hotel, but comfortable enough, and what do you expect for a tenner?

Kunming remains copyright of the author magykal1, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

We spent a lot of the first day wandering around Kowloon, from the front of Salisbury road with an amazing view of the skyscrapers in Victoria Harbour, to Mong Kok with bustling street markets and food stalls.

Had dinner at a good vietnamese restaurant, Nha Trang I think it was called - mmm, lemongrass beef.

In the second day we got the KCR train out to the New Territories, thought we'd see what the Hong Kong countryside looked like. 'Serious Countryside' said the Rough Guide. I beg to differ, a paved track with a view over a reservoir and a cargo jetty (but with a few hills in the background) but it was an interesting trip anyway - partly to see the local folk using the public barbeque to burn small birds and whole fish of various descriptions.

We went back to Hong Kong and had Dim Sum at the top floor of the Peking One building - highly recommended this, particularly the barbeque pork buns and the fried prawn dumplings.

Afterwards, went to the Hong Kong art museum and looked at some ceramics (yep, ming vases and all) including some really interesting stuff from about 2000 BC.

Spent the evening riding the tram (like Blackpool trams) and wandering around Victoria on Hong Kong Island, just exploring and trying chinese food (We had some fantastic spicy satay-type chicken on a stick, hainan chicken rice, and shredded pork noodles).

Then went back to the hotel, cheated the mini bar prices by buying the same stuff for a tenth of the price from 7/11 next door, and went to sleep to premierhip football which is on continuously here. Next stop Kunming!

Hong Kong remains copyright of the author magykal1, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Will have to try to concentrate on work somehow - I've got loads of things to finish off today - but I can only thing about Jade Dragon Snow Mountain at the moment....

One Day to Go remains copyright of the author magykal1, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs