Standing in the cold picking out a few shooting stars against the black, I half wished they wouldn't turn up. I wanted to go back to bed. They ruthlessly arrived with who I can only assume were 'The Others'. Ten of them in total. Luckily no introductions were offered as I'd never remember them all. Off we trekked, taking slightly too frequent breaks but the company was good and we had timed it perfectly. We arrived at the peak just as tones of deep blue cre...

I was up at six feeling like I'd caught up from the weekend in Liaocheng and keen and raring to get to my destination. I went down to the bus station and was on the bus to Nanping by 7. Two hours later I was on my feet trekking up the cliff side path to Guoliangcun. Another two hours and I found myself back in Nanping with no idea what had just happened. Apparently I'd just done one big lap of the cliffs and ended up back at square one. I set off again carefu...