Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Where am I?

If you have been following my travels you may have noticed my blog is not up to date. I will eventually type up where I have visited and what I have been doing. In the meantime I thought I would give a brief summary of my month in China.

China is enormous and a month does not do it justice. I crossed into China from Vietnam. From Nanning I caught a train to Guilin and then spent a week in Yangshuo. Yanghsuo is beautiful with limestone karst scenery. I did a day trip to the stunning Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces before catching an overnight train from Guilin to Wuhan. I then travelled to Wuyuan to visit the Huizhou villages. I also visited villages in Yixian county near Tunxi. The villages are wonderful time capsules. I then walked up Huang Shan mountain. I think I walked about 45kms in 24 hours broken with a fitful sleep in a very smelly dorm room on the summit. I went back to Tunxi where I caught a bus to Shanghai. I travelled by overnight train to Xi'an and visited the Army of Terracotta Warriors which isn't quite as good as you think it might be. It was in Xi'an where I felt the earthquake tremor. From Xi'an I caught an overnight train to Beijing. I had a very busy week of sightseeing in Beijing. The undoubted highlight being the 10km hike along the Great Wall of China from Jinshanling to Simatai. I left Beijing by overnight train to Datong where I visited the Hanging Monastery and Yungang Caves. I arrived in Erlian today. Erlian is the Chinese side of the Mongolian border. I cross tomorrow and hope to catch an overnight train to Ulan Bator.

If you would like to see my photos from the trip then visit www.flickr.com/photos/skimmens. The photos are up to date, unlike the blog.

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