China, what can we say, the sheer scale and diversity of the place meant it was always going to be an epic adventure. We were not disappointed. Our trip began when we entered from Hong Kong and took a high speed train from Guangzhou to Guilin, a short bus ride later and we were in Yangshuo, where our trip properly began. We joined a 16 day tour with the Dragon Trip tour company, with 15 in our group we took public transport and met a local guide in each of our five major destinations.

From Yangshuo we took a 25 hour sleeper train north to Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province. A few days in Chengdu we had another sleeper train through the Qinling Mountians into northern China to the ancient city and former capital of Xian. Another few days in Xian and we were on the road again, this time with a bus to the birthplace of Kung Fu and Zen Buddhism, Shaolin. After seeing the monks and witnessing the power of their Kung Fu we had yet another night train to Beijing. With time running short before we had to be leaving for Mongolia we quickly saw a sample of the sights in Beijing before heading out to the Great Wall for one of the trip highlights, camping on an unrestored section of the wall.

YANGSHUO - GUANGXI PROVINCE

Arriving in Yangshuo at night we headed straight to our hostel to catch some rest before the real fun began the next day. We woke to a town surrounded by spectacular karst limestone mountains, think like something straight out of the set of the movie Avatar. We decided to do a traditional Chinese cooking class, where we walked to the market and bought our food to cook up a storm. The market is what you would expect, fresh fruit and veg, spices, ginger etc. We were a little confronted when we arrived at the meat section of the market, you can select your live chicken, goose, cat or dog and they will ‘prepare’ it for you on the spot. The vegetarians in the group definitely stayed outside for this part. We returned to the kitchen where we took to the wok and cooked three dishes and attempted some dumplings, great fun and tasty food.

In the afternoon we hired some bikes and took a leisurely ride out into the country side where we really saw the beauty of the place. We headed to the river and went bamboo rafting, which is a bamboo raft with two seats and a man using a bamboo branch as a paddle to push us along.  With amazing views surrounding us we sat back and enjoyed the ride. We were lucky enough to spot a local fisherman using Cormorant birds to catch his fish. A rubber band is placed around the birds neck so that when it dives into the water and catches a fish in its beak it is unable to swallow it, and instead the fisherman is able to get the fish instead.

We woke to a rainy day in Yangshuo gathered our raincoats and headed out to the mountains for lunch at an organic farm.  We walked a few kilometres to the famous Water Buddha caves, where we were shown through the cave system while it continued to pour outside. We ventured further into the cave and found some natural mudpools. This was the perfect way to spend a rainy day and give our skin a much needed exfoliate! That night we cleaned ourselves up and headed out for a night of classic Karaoke, some real team building here.

Nursing a slight hangover the next day it was a late start for all so we boarded a bus to a traditional market to stroll the shops and try some of local food. Every time I looked behind Pete was in another selfie with one or many Chinese girls, he definitely didn’t mind the attention! From the market we headed to a rural village where we had dinner with one of the local host’s families, we drank tea and ate an assortment of vegetables, meat and rice fresh from the farm.

That night we were constantly woken by a huge storm with constant flashes of lightening, which lit up the surrounding mountains. The wind was howling and the rain was pelting, the storm continued throughout the night and we woke to no power and the town half flooded. We had a bus at 0900 that morning so we quickly packed our bags and walked the back streets to find our bus. Once we were in the bus we began to realise the extent of the flooding, there were shops under water and cars fully submerged. The bus took three different routes to try and get out of town but all were flooded, our final exit route was luckily a success, if we had of been one hour later we may have been stuck in town. We made it safely to the train station where we boarded an overnight train to Chengdu.

CHENGDU - SICHUAN PROVINCE

Sichuan, the spice province, famous its spicy hotpot and Panda sanctuary, it’s capital city Chengdu city did not disappoint. We arrived late afternoon and settled into our hostel, freshened up and headed out to find some street food before a night at the Opera. Chinese Opera was everything from singing, dancing, acrobatics and storytelling. Arriving back at the Hostel everyone was keen to go to check out the nightlife. Kid, our local guide called his friend and we ended up at his friends nightclub where we had many laughs at lots of dancing with the local Chinese, Pete even got offered a Tibetan wife.

The following day we headed to the Leshan Buddha that is 71m tall and was built overlooking the confluence of three rivers. In ancient times the rough waters caused many local fishermen to drown, so the Buddha was built to calm the rivers. We were guided through the temple by our local guide Kid who was able to explain the basics of Buddhism to us and the way to enter and pray in temples. He was currently studying Buddhism and a great source of information. Once we returned to the hostel we headed across the road for a spicy hotpot dinner, still one of our favourite meals of the trip so far.

The next morning we took a bus to the Panda sanctuary where we strolled around the park and observed the Pandas. The older Pandas were not interested in anything but the bamboo in front of them. The bamboo provides them very little nutrition so they have to eat around 25% of their body weight of bamboo every day! It doesn’t leave much time for much else! The baby pandas were everyone’s favourite, they were super energetic and so so clumsy, we spent a while just watching them play with each other. We returned to the hostel where we boarded another overnight train to Xi’an.

XI'AN - SHAANXI PROVINCE

One of four major ancient Chinese cities, Xi’an has a history of over 3,100 years and acted as the capital to many Chinese Dynasties. We met our local honcho Sasha who was from Kazakhstan and had been living in China for 10 years, studying Chinese ancient history. We had the perfect guide to teach us more of Chinas long history. Staying there in the centre of town we took a walk to the ancient drum and bell towers which once were used to let the villages know when to start and finish work as well as notifying them of festival days. Xi’an is the start of the Silk Road and many Persians travelled this route and stopped in China, there is a specific Muslim quarter which we explored at length trying much of the street food along the way.

The next morning we took a bus to visit the famous Terracotta warriors, the “eighth wonder of the world” - according to the Chinese. This was incredible to see these ancient ruins and definitely one of the highlights of the trip. We returned to the city in the late afternoon and hired some bikes at the city wall and biked the 13.7km ancient wall passing all major gates along the way. It was a bumpy ride but with great views of the city. 

SHAOLIN - NORTHWEST HENAN PROVINCE

After our final night in Xi’an we woke early to board a six hour bus to the birth place of Kung Fu, Shaolin. We were staying out on a farm where they provided us with some great accommodation and food for days. That afternoon we purchased some kung fu shoes and made our way to a local Kung Fu school where we first observed the students demonstrate their skill to us. From here we wondered across the road to a pavilion where we could shelter from the rain. We learnt a Kung Fu routine with the help of the students. Pete had his own private trainer to check he had some weight behind his punches.

Day two in Shaolin we went to the Shaolin Temple where we hiked to Dharma’s cave where he continuously meditated for nine years. This is who bought Zen Buddishm to the world and helped Kung Fu take off. We spent the day walking around the pagoda forest and temples before returning for the evening and preparing for another night train to Beijing. 

BEIJING

Arriving in Beijing with less than 24 hours in town before taking the train to Mongolia speed tourism was the only way. We arrived in the heart of the city around 0730 , dropped our bags at the hostel while everyone showered we grabbed the camera and headed down the street to Tiananmen square for a few photos, being so early we were lucky enough to beat the crowds. With huge government buildings surrounding the square and army personal on post it was slightly confronting. Mao’s portrait is front and centre and directly opposite his mausoleum. We were in Beijing on a Monday which meant we were forbidden from entering the Forbidden City as it was closed. We jumped on the subway and made our way to the temple of heaven and wondered the park. There many elderly Chinese playing card games, dancing, knitting and all sorts throughout the park. We quickly returned to the hostel to meet back with the group to take a bus to the great wall.

Our bus ride was slightly delayed as a road crash meant we spent a few hours on the side of the road as we waited for the crash to be cleared. We arrived at a farm at the base of the hills leading to an unrestored section of the great wall, where they provided us with a quick dinner before we hurriedly gathered up our camping equipment and made the hike up the hills to the wall. It was a swift walk as we were chasing the sunset that was quickly setting before our eyes. We ran the last bit and made it just in time for a quick sunset snap. This would have to have been the highlight of our trip so far! After the sun had gone down we pitched our tents and build a camp fire, it was a great way to spend our last night in China, a clear sky meant we could see the stars overhead, and a bright moon gave us clear views along the wall all night. Waking up at 0430 the next morning we were a little dusty but it was totally worth it to be able to see the sunrise from a rampart on the wall. After deconstructing our tent we said goodbye to our tour group and headed back into Beijing to fight the traffic on the way to the train station, where we would board the 28 hour train to Ulaan Baatar, capital of Mongolia and begin our next adventure!