Classic China

It was just like the ink art you see of China, spires of mountains, steep rice terraces and drifting mist. 

The forecast was full on rain and it started that way with fog but by the time we got to the Dragon's Backbone, it had dried up and the cloud inverted beautifully a few times. We walked around the old timber houses and stopped off for lunch at a traditional restaurant where the food was amazing and the aubergine bright purple and delicious. 

We've tried out a wonderful tea made from a local fruit and ginger, watched the bird life and listened to frogs croaking on the slopes. 

Steeling ourselves for thousands of tourists, we were overjoyed to find only a couple of handfuls. That may have been helped by the landslide that blocked us in after we'd passed through though! We made it home down a rocky track in the car and passed another slide once we hit the main road... A somewhat thought-provoking mound of heavy rocky clay!

I'm really liking sub tropical Guilin. The lake has an eerie mist clinging to it with two pagodas appearing out of the middle. The streets are buzzing, loud and fascinating, with music, people selling their wares and the smells of street food drifting through the alleyways.  

We've eaten a plate full of small, whole fresh water shrimps fried in garlic as part of dinner that reminded us both of the crickets we ate almost exactly this time last year - probably a little tastier but just as crunchy! 

To finish off the evening, we went out at 8.28 to watch the 10 minute wonder of the largest artificial waterfall (where else?! The Chinese do like their Guinness Book of Records entries) in the world cascading to music in waves across the entire width of our hotel, complete with rainbows. We were skeptical but it was captivating, particularly with a raging thunderstorm going on and everyone's umbrellas up in the deluge.

I think we've experienced almost every type of weather this trip.