Today, I decided to explore the Bund and the area round my hostel. I finally met my dormmates - one American travelling for a year (who was still asleep when I woke) and two friends travelling together, one of who was from Hong Kong and recommended where to go for tourist shopping. After breakfast, I headed East towards the Huangpu River, as there is a newly refurbished promenade along the river, with the Bund buildings to the right and, on the other bank, the new commercial district of Pudong. The Bund is... well, weird. Misplaced. It's quintessential 1920s and 30s European and American art deco and neo-Classical architecture. You feel, in fact, as though you are in Vienna or the older (and cleaner) parts of the City of London, or Berlin, or Paris. Anywhere, in short, ... read more

Today I headed back to the Zhongshan Mountain area to see the final attraction: the tomb of the Ming Emperor. Naning - the name literally means 'South capital' was the capital of China under the Ming dynasty, before it was changed back to Beijing - which, I found out, literally means 'North capital', such an anticlimax! The Ming tomb as it stands now is, you'll be stunned to learn, a reconstruction. You can visit the original site which still lies just off the path of the new tomb area. The tomb itself was fairly unimpressive, to be brutally honest. What makes the whole trip worth it, is the lead-up to the tomb and the scenic area around the tomb. The entrance leads over a carved wooden bridge to a now-roofless hall with a doorway pointing in ... read more

To the East of the city of Nanjing is a whole wooded area around Zhongshan mountain. This reserve has been set aside for walking, picnicking and for three of Nanjing's major sites: the Ming Tombs, Dr Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum and the Linggu Temple. Today, I decided to set off for the Linggu Temple - one of the great centres of modern, practising Buddhism in China. Since the bus system in Nanjing is impressively efficient (as, in fact, is most of the transport in China - one huge advantage of a Communist regime), I took the bus to the furthest point I could within the Zhongshan area and, with some trepidation, stepped out into sunlit forest. I soon found out that my entrance ticket did not only including the Linggu temple itself but also the surrounding area ... read more

Today I headed for the largest of Suzhou's gardens, the Humble Administrator's Garden. The name, apparently, is ironic, as the gardens themselves are vast and crawling with tourist groups. I found it hard to get a clear sense of the layout of the garden because of it's immense size; however, it seemed to be arranged into two distinct halves, divided by a white wall. The first half, with the entrance and exit, has a few buildings, then opens onto a vast space of about 6 or 7 acres. Half of this (nearest the wall leading to the second half of the garden) is taken up by a lake, with an island in the middle and various bridges winding their way round and over it. The other half, nearest the exit, is occupied by some buildings, which ... read more

I spent my last morning in Guilin stocking up on necessary snacks and instant noodles for the train ride, and then headed back onto a packed train carriage (hard sleeper again) for the train ride to Shanghai - only 22 hours this time. Oh, and nursing mosquito bites because some little wossit had been having a field day in our dorm the last night. The train journey was fairly painless, I read and slept, played cards (although the fact that British packs have 3 jokers completely threw my Chinese opponents - we ended up taking one out), and ate. I was sharing a partition with an elderly couple (very sweet and generous - they offered me a vine-leaf wrapped rice ball and then had to teach me how to eat it), and three young people my ... read more