What a difference a day makes. From the miserable rain of Xiamen to the giddy metropolis of Shanghai.Such an early start for holiday makers with the alarm piercing the darkness at 5.45 to ensure we were packed and ready for a quick getaway at 7.30 am. The exit would have been smooth except the checkout team of the hotel wanted to accuse us of pilfering "a little white towel" and an umbrella. Took Mac a little while to convince them that we had not purloined the g...

Not going to rate this adventure as one of my "favs" in China but maybe the weather was responsible for a dampened enthusiasm. The visibility at some times during the day was down to 20 metres ....so Xiamen and the surrounding landscape zoomed by shrouded in a perpetual fog of mystery.We left the Days Inn at 8.30 am under an umbrella in heavy rain and returned to Xiamen at 5.15 pm under an umbrella shrouded in mist and rain. Our goal was to reach the mountains of...

A travel day for us as we continue our journey towards the Coast. A leisurely start to the day with anticipated departure time at 10.30. We were the only guests in the entire breakfast room at 9.00 and thoroughly enjoyed the privacy and intimacy of our "Parisian" breakfast in the 300 seat venue.Our first stop this morning is the Guilin Pearl Factory - my last China purchase as part of my birthday present. After a five minute introduction to the pearl (it was a bi...

We made it! Just eight pieces of bamboo lashed together with a makeshift seat for two tied on top ... and a good young man with a very long pole. Now that is adventure.Mac bought me my garland of flowers and helped me on board and we were away for a leisurely float down the Yulong River. The scenery was spectacular. The little dams and waterfalls along the way provided a bit of variety and the stall holders floating in the middle of the river gave us a few chuckl...

Well I spoke just a couple of days too soon about the sunshine because this morning we woke to a sullen sky, winds and a heavy shower of rain. We met Wendy right on 9 in the lobby to the news that the bamboo rafting had been cancelled today due to "turbulence in the water". So a swap in our itinerary and we were off to the rice fields.Wendy had told us to dress for 16 C and water for the boat trip and of course in the rush of the morning it didn't occur to u...