Hi everyone from the buzzing metropolis of Shanghai! I have just arrived today and will set out to explore the city tomorrow, but I must first update on my past few days in rural China - I have had a brilliant few days and such a contrast to Shanghai!

First things first - my cooking class. After I last wrote, I joined the Yangshuo Cooking School for the afternoon and learnt how to cook five Chinese dishes! We set out on a tour of the fresh produce market first, examining all sorts of weird and wonderful fruits and veg before the group headed next door to the more lively stuff. I decided to skip that bit - "bushi, wo bu chi gourou!" (no, I don't eat dog!), watching instead locals cooking up dumplings, noodles and fried dough sticks with rice from enormous woks. We drove out into the countryside to a beautiful village along the river and got hands on cooking up chicken & cashew, spinach, fried eggplant, beer fish (a local delicacy) and tofu- stuffed vegies - it was so much fun! It looked amazing and we scoffed the lot after, washed down with local beer. I am yet to get my first Michelin star but it is coming I assure you - I plan to show off my culinary skills on my return!

I left Yangshuo on Saturday morning in the heavy rain, taking a Chinese tour bus a long way north (I think) to a small village called Ping An, located on the central ridge of the Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces. They are the most extreme form of terracing in the world and an unbelievable sight - built 500 years ago, they wind from rivers and valleys up to the top of mountains 1000 feet high. The journey there was as I expected - a long slog with a coach load of screeming Chinese who were more than happy to pay large sums to watch an awful show with locals dancing and cutting their long hair - they love anything tacky and touristy (I had been forewarned and gave it a miss). I was glad to finally leave them behind and set out to explore the terraces. I walked to several viewpoints and saw the most unbelievable sight - layer upon layer of rice terraces coiling up and around mountains up to an altitude of 1000 feet - it really was phenomenol and up there with the best sight (if not the best) I have seen on my travels. It was quite a hike up and along the ridge but well worth it and so rewarding to hike beyond the crowds and out into nowhere. The whole landscape was a lush green with clouds down in the valleys and tiny farms, tracks and villages tucked away in folds of the mountains. I spent one night in Ping An village and found the most awesome hotel with a view down on the mountains - wow! The village was carved into a fold in the terraces and full of wooden homes and guesthouses with horses, ducks and chickens lining the narrow pathways and women with large baskets on their backs.

I had heard good things about the hotel food but was disappointed to find the cafe was closed on Saturday night as the hotel lady was throwing a party for 500 people to celebrate her baby's 100 day-old birthday (if that makes sense!). She said I could go elsewhere or join the party - ok, party it was! It turned out to be the most bizarre experience of my travels. I joined the birthday baby and family around a table about 1 foot off the ground and perched on the most tiny stall imaginable. I was quite embarrassed with my long legs! I was given a cup of orange juice and we toasted everyone around the table. Two minutes later we did it again and then I realized we did it every time someone came to the table, which turned out to be about every minute as it was one chaotic party. There were mini tables and people chatting everywhere, babies running around, I spied a couple of pooches too, and after about two minutes the lady left telling me she was parading the 100-day birthday baby. On top of that there was TV on full blast next to the table showing comedy sketches with dogs - what?!

I was invited to get stuck into the food - about 50 dishes on the table - help I had no idea what anything was. It was awfully embarrassing but I felt obliged to take a bit of everything I was offered. I had a prawn first and copied everyone else by biting chunks off it (no shelling here!) and then nibbled at other bits. I noticed everyone spat bits they didn't want on the floor between their legs and made a pile of scraps on the table - it was a very messy affair. I felt embarrassed at this but more so by the pile of scraps accumulating in my bowl, so I started a pile of my own which grew quickly into a mound. A whole fish was brought out and placed in the centre of the table (eyes included) and everyone attacked it with chopsticks. There was a really browny meat dish too and I asked the lady what it was. After a lot of thought she said 'meat' - I feared it was once something with a waggy tail so promptly piled it! The rice pot saved me and I beamed when asked - yup, I'm full (phew!). Eventually after lots of people watching and uttering 'xie xie' (thank you) about a million times (the only Chinese word I have conquered) I left the party with my party bag - an egg and apple! What an experience - probably the best insight I will ever get into Chinese culture.

The following day I set off up into the terraces again for some more hiking with more stunning views. I wandered around the village backstreets first observing Sunday morning household duties and then wound through the terraces and past farmers hard at work. It was glorious in the hot sun. After trying some bamboo rice and fried bamboo with some backpackers back at the hotel, I left the village and caught a bus back to Guilin. As with every other journey in China, it was a long, sweltering and bumpy ride, squeezed into a tiny minibus with my pack on top of me. The driver opted for the country roads rather than the highway for some reason and gave us a fright on several occassions trying to overtake on blind bends with trucks on the other side loaded sky-high with wood. I was glad to be back but didn't linger in Guilin and caught a flight over to Shanghai today. It was a Chinese affair too, there were some pretty immense clouds about but the pilot took us on a joy ride, zig-zagging across the whole of China I'm sure of it - really it was a joke, the plane flipped from side to side the entire way, it was crazy. And after a two hour slog on the metro with the rest of Shanghai and some street navigation issues, I have found my hostel - woopie! Its been a pretty tough week so it's nice to be in one spot for a while!

After exploring tomorrow I plan to spend three days at the World Expo! Despite the horror stories (500,000 + visitors a day - all Chinese), I am really excited by it so will let you all know what its like soon. The World Expo, here I come!

Grace xx