april 11th sun; went to airport with beth. got back paid for room and caught mtr to central. got 123hk dollars back even tho was -15hkd and put on a 100hkd. bus came on time. issues with language happened immediately. at the border crossing it was just a case of pointing and following the rest of the chinese people on the bus and flashing my ticket. the woman checking my passport photo didnt think that the handsome man in front of her was the same guy in the passport, so had to wait for another person to come and 'check' that it was me. very thorough checks at border. got to the stop in guanzhou fine. guanzhou seems to have some nice skyscrapers only 1 or 2 but the place is huge. walked around for 2 1/2hrs with backpack on looking for an atm. got to the 4th one and it worked. had a mcd's then sat at train station main square for 40mins waiting for train. got into station and the cleaniing lady could see i was lost so she pointed me in the right direction. the train carriage was full of the chinese army and all their gear-had to sleep with my backback on my bed. hard sleeper top bunk-can actually sit up.

mon 12th; got in around 6;30am. didnt have a great sleep and feel knackered waking up. as i got into subway a guy from tourist company told me theres a tourist info centre up the stairs. there were fixed signs on the roof of the subway so followed the signs as it seemed legit. got there and it weas closed. 2mins later and the guy turned up. was really helpful. got me a hostel and i booked the li river cruise and my trains from guilin to luizhou. he walked me to the hostel, got a dorm room of 4 beds to mymyself. sorted some laundry finally and planned my day. guilin seems like a nice place, not a huge place or masses of people. went for breakfast in this little cafe. woman couldnt speak english so i had to point - but she couldnt tell me what it was, turned out to be noodles with scrambled egg and tomato.
i then went to solitary peak. its located in a walled temple area. it cost 70yuan to get in-you cant just go to the peak. walking around there wasnt much there. also the info/exhibitions are all in chinese. when walking around alot of the rooms they were in darkness. and then i'd see a few things move and realise that the staff were all sleeping and would only turn the light on and wake up when a tourist walked in. quite a steep climb to the top of the peak and views were quite cool. the city is surrounded by karst peaks. not worth the 70yuan to get in tho. it would be good to pay just for the peak. probably best to checkout the wave hill not too far away. i then walked over to seven star park. paid 90yuan for park entry and cave 65yuan incl. park is pretty big and nicely maintained. its the equivalent of our country parks. i went to the cave, if you go, take a torch, unless you get a guide. the cave is huge, in terms of size and length. for 1/2 of it i was on my own. apart from the path light every 10m or so the cave was in darkness. caught up with a tour guide and the guide switched on the lights on and off when they went to each specific sight. there was also people here in the pitch black, sleeping/working. walked back over universal bridge where the bamboo rafts were. i tried to get them to go down stream to elephant trunk hill but they only go upstream. so i walked there. price more reasonable at 40yuan. you can walk on top of the hill but the views are obscured by trees and theres a brick pagoda there but its all blocked up. went back to hosytel to find i had a room mate, paul from chester. chilled for an hr or 2 and then we went for food and to find a bar. the main street had a long market all the way down it seemed -km maybe. got back about 11ish

tues: pick up at 8:30 for li river cruise and its pissing down. apart from the rain it was a really nice cruise. the view was quite clear so the views of the karst peaks was amazing. had an ok lunch on board and got to yangshou @ 1:30. was walking around west street looking for a hostel and couldnt find one. one 2nd walk around i ran into the owner of the bamboo hostel so she took me to there. got a dorm for 25yuan and im the only one there. only drawback is i cant use the rooms toilet or shower and the reception wc is an asian toilet. unpackd and hung up my still soaking washing so now everything smells damp. and headed out. west street is full of people, really nice shops from little clothes shops to souvenirs and theres also market stalls selling just about everything. the street is only a few 100ms long. saw an old chinese fisherman on the harbour with 2 commerant birds -but he was there for tourist photos only. went back mto hostel and caught up with emailsetc. owners of hostel are very friendly and helpful. went out for food, as sitting waiting for food 2 chinese girls ask me to sit with them. stayed with them till 10 (they had a kerfew) then went checked out a bar and went home.

wed:woken up by rain :( it cleared a little so i decided to do the yulong bamboo raft cruise. but 1st i needed the toilet. didnt want to use the asian one so decided to go to mc'ds and i could also have breakfast there. unfortunately turned out it was an asian toilet to. so i bit the bullet. god damn aweful things!! hostel guy said it would take 2hrs to walk to bamboo raft place and 3-4 hrs rafting. got to the bottom bit in 1hr 20mins so i knew he got mixed up. so i hitched a ride on a back of a bike. bartered with bamboo people and got raft for 150y. it did rain a little but had a patio umbtella so didnt get wet much. the view was amazing and for parts i was the only raft on that stretch of river. only things that dampened the trip were the numerous bars and photo shops pestering me to eithedr buy a photo, or by myself a beer or by the 'hard working raft man' a beer. right atr the end i managed to catch an actual genuine commerant fisherman fishing, and he, well the commerant caught a fish.after walking vack to hostel i chilled there for a bit then walked the main street and met the 2 chinese girls from yesterday at 7. they taught me a couple of dice games and a chinese card game. i went for food and met back up with later. after they left i went to 2 bars and went home about 11ish-have a new dorm mate but didnt meet as sleeping fast. had a great sleep.

thurs 15th: shower and toilet are working!!!!! walked around town for an hour (not raining), had an english breakfast went back and packed. rained so stayed in hosteltill i needed to catch the bus. scenery on way back to guilin was pretty and watched this film called b13 -cool stunts and alot of free running. walked up guilin high st looking for a photo shop -bought a 4gb sd card as im still unable to upload my photos., grabbed food and then caught train to luizhou. got talking to this couple who were lovely. v.little english buy they asked me if i wanted to for food with them in luizhou and they gave me some cakes and a present. so went for food -chinese dumplings with them and her sister who was an english teacher. luizhou ws very pretty (it was night time) but everything was lit up on the river front; buildings, bridges (alot of them) abd even the karst peaks. saw this amazing fountain show -best one ive seen by far. caught taxi back with them and sunny waited in train station with me. everyone and i mean everyone was staring at me in the station, watching everything i did. they wouldnt let me pay for anything (sunny and the other 2). they were really friendly and im pleased i had time to meet them and see some of luizhou.