I knew I had a lot of travelling ahead of me. I was heading to the remote clifftop village of Guoliang and had first to travel to Xinxiang, then to Huixian before heading to Nanping and finally walking 5km up the cliff side path to Guoliang Village.

I got to the bus station in Liaocheng and discovered I'd have to wait two hours for the first bus. Even then the bus wouldn't take me into town but would drop me on the motorway. This didn't sound attractive, but I hadn't slept and was beginning to get hungover so nothing sounded attractive.

I knew I should've gone to the train station to enquire but just couldn't be bothered. At least my stomach had two hours to settle.

Say what you like about Lonely Planet but getting in and out of the one town I've been to that isn't in it was a logistic nightmare.

Hours and hours later I found myself standing on the motorway, modest wad of cash in hand (given to me by the bus driver, compensation for the awful service, perhaps) trying to flag down anything that might take me into Xinxiang proper.

Eventually I got there and managed to get to Huixian but my day would have to end there. I had spent the day travelling and still hadn't arrived at my destination. I found dinner and a cheap bed and was in it by 8 o'clock.