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In China, you never can escape the feeling you are in a country with 1.3 billion people. Despite that, and our travelling slogan - Always Look Up (China is still catching up on modern waste disposal) - this is a beautiful, mystifying and magical place that for us has lived up to our dreamy image of classic China.


The landscape in Guilin and Yangshuo is stunning. It is littered with vertical karst limestone spires jutting up between the meandering lifeblood of this region - the Li River. The ever present mist and haze (although frustrating at times) only adds to the mystery, creating a real life serene watercolour.


We spent the first couple of days exploring the town (only 1.3 million) of Guilin. Chinese New Year has been in full swing, and street markets cater to the many tourists. Ever since we arrived, firecrackers at all hours (and the car alarms that inevitably follow) have given the impression that we're living in a warzone. Restaurants display their live ingredients in cages. Another motto for China...if it moves, eat it! We've seen the standard chickens, ducks yabbies and fish, as well as some less appetizing species: snakes, turtles, armadillos and some kind of smelly grey ball of fluff...a bit like an over-sized guinea pig.


The touristy places inspire some mixed feelings. The views are awe-inspiring, but the constant honk of tour buses and the exploitation of animals for tourist moolah takes some getting used to. Cormorants once used for traditional fishing, gorgeous peacocks and monkeys are tied to sticks or surrounded by garlands of fake flowers for tacky photo ops.


The Li River was the busy highway by which we made our way from Guilin to Yangshuo. We hired a motorboat to seat four, and ended up travelling with our very own "Fat Bastard" - If you've seen Austin Powers, you get the picture. We sped past countless cruise boats, perfuming the whole river with the 'Eau de Chinese Restaurant' that oozed from their open kitchens at the stern.


Yangshuo is filled with further scenic and culinary delights. We've climbed to the top of the Moon (or at least a mountain with a hole right through the middle), ventured into the muddy depths of a Water Cave and narrowly avoided medical attention to surgically remove bike seats from our bruised backsides as we cycled miles and miles and miles along crazy highways, through chaotic town centres and among tranquil rice paddies.


So far, China has been spectacular, chaotic, festive, surprising and utterly delicious: everything we hoped it would be.

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