Sichuan - Tibetan Highway Shangri-La > Xiangcheng > Litang > Kangding > Chengdu Our journey from Shangri-La to Chengdu took us through the prefecture of Garze; a region of the Sichuan province that was part of Tibet prior to Chinese rule. It is very difficult to get travel permits into Tibet, but with a population made up of almost 80% ethnic Tibetans this is a good place to travel to experience Tibetan culture. The journey through Garze involv...

Lijiang The old town of Lijiang was recently made a world heritage site due to its unique layout and architecture from many of the local ethnic minorities over its 800 year history. Most of the buildings have now been turned into shops, restaurants and guest houses, so the area has a bit of a theme park vibe to it, but despite this the town is undeniably stunning. We were lucky to be here in the low season and were able to walk around the small winding alleyway...

We arrived to our delight in a balmy Kunming (25 C). We spent our 2 days here snacking, recouperating and ironically going for a bit of a hike through the city outskirts to buy hiking shoes in preparation for Tiger Leaping Gorge in a few days time. Aidan went for an early morning run around the inner city refuge of Green Lake Park, navigating his way through groups of people doing Tai Chi, playing badminton, and even doing Tai Chi while holding badminton racquets...

Today started with a mad dash in the dark for the 7am bus from Yangshuo to Guilin. Our hybrid bags came into their own as we de-bussed in a raining Guilin and held out under a shelter with the locals. Today is our first long haul train ride - 23 hours from Guilin to Kunming. Soft sleeper worth every penny and between food trolleys going past the carriage at regular intervals and watching Season 2 of Revenge who could ask for more! Yangshuo lived up to the promis...

Our first independent Chinese inter city transit experience: Guilin to Yangshuo Mr Lonely planet said that mini buses could be found at the train station or regular coaches at the bus station. We elected to go for the mini busses, as Alana tried to explain in a semi comprehensive conversation with the taxi driver telling us that "trains don't go to Yangshuo". On arrival at the station we transformed our hybrid packs into backpack mode and sat down for a bowl of...