Having a Japan Rail pass makes things so easy - just show your pass to officer at the manual ticket gate at any Japanese train station and just pass on through and board any train you want apart from the two fastest class of shinkansen to anywhere you want. It never takes long to get from one place to another and I was appreciating the short journeys after all the long ones in China. A mere one-and-a-half hours later, I had reached my next destination of Hiroshima. The city is nice and compact and very easily walkable. It was also noticeably quieter here than in Osaka - combined with its relatively small size and it really didn't feel like a city with 1.2m inhabitants. Despite the lack of traffic however, it did not stop the locals ... read more

Think about all the research that you do, the booking decisions you have to make and the logistics you need to arrange every time you go on holiday. Now imagine that you have to do all that every few days. First world problem I know, but after two years of it, it gets a bit frustrating and tiresome - especially when you're on a budget tighter than Richard Simmons's spandex. This was how I spent my last day in Shanghai, so just as well as it was raining, just like it had been all damn week. All day, every day. Constant. Relentless. It was definitely time to get out of this place. China's railways are pretty advanced these days; high speed rail is going up all over the place and a bullet train can take you ... read more

I have always wanted to to know more about my roots in China, so I vowed that the day I ever set foot in the country, that I would try and find out more about where I came from. I knew that I still had family in Guangdong province but knew little about exactly where and who they were until I visited my aunt in Kuala Lumpur about four months ago. While in KL, I discovered that on my grandfather's side, that I had relatives living near the town of Kaiping, about three hours from Guangzhou. I was thinking about visiting Kaiping anyway, since there are some unique watchtowers or diaolou in the area that are supposed to be some of the most interesting things to see in China. So when I found out that I ... read more

You might know it has the world's highest revenue-generating gambling mecca. You might know it as a former Portuguese colony. You might know it as where James Bond arrives suited and booted at a casino aboard a small raft on a lantern-lit canal, with fireworks going off overhead. Whatever you know about Macau, it is difficult to argue that it doesn't sound like an interesting place. Just a one hour ferry ride from Hong Kong, the opportunity to take a peek at this curious little enclave was too much to resist. Everything about the ferry ride - from the short distance from Chungking Mansions to the China Ferry Terminal in Kowloon, to grabbing tickets right at the gate before immigration, from the swift immigration and boarding process, to the ride itself in comfortable leather seats that ... read more

The foreigners who travel through China tend to be older, and/or are couples, or have been studying, working or volunteering in China and are now travelling around. It is a hassle to get a visa to come here, it is difficult to get around without some Mandarin and it isn't as cheap as say, South East Asia, so it isn't the most popular destination of choice for young backpackers. That's been my experience anyway, as my show rolled into Yangshuo. There were a few more white faces here than I had seen previously. Nearby Guilin used to be the poster child of Chinese tourism, one perennially promoted by the Communist government to the outside world, showcasing the natural beauty of China. By all accounts however, Guilin is now past its prime and has handed over its ... read more