After a lovely breakfast in our hotel, we set off to explore Paris, taking the RER to the Eiffel Tower. As was rather predictable on a sunny Saturday in June, the queue was quite long, and by the time we got to the ticket booth they would only sell tickets to the second level. The view was still excellent, and we even braved the glass floor to look over where we'd queued earlier! From the Eiffel Tower, we strolled around the centre of Paris, past les Invalides, to the Champs Elysees, the Louvre and the Notre Dame. It was very hot and sunny, and we paused several times in different parks, and in le Petit Palais. We ended the day in the Latin Quarter, with a very pleasant three course dinner (including ice cream for dessert, ... read more

On our way to Hong Kong airport after a hot and sunny day in the city. Sad that it's the end of our trip :-(... read more

We arrived in Yangshuo after a scary bus ride, where the driver seemed intent on overtaking everything, regardless of what was coming the other way, on a very bumpy road. We also discovered that the Chinese way to deal with telephone lines down across the road is the driving equivalent of a scrum to be first to have a man climb on the vehicle to pass them over... Anyway, once here we discovered that the weird-shaped karst scenery is really spectacular. Yangshuo itself is quite touristy, in an oddly Western way (it really doesn't feel like China), but it's surrounded by limestone peaks on either side of the Li river - in our first afternoon we climbed up a couple of them for the view. Today we went cycling, first to moon hill, a mountain with ... read more

After a breakfast of fried egg (with chopsticks) and bread, we set off on a bus part way up Mt Emei. Along with lots of other people, we climbed up a steep path with lots of steps past some pagodas and a temple to an area with lots of monkeys. We walked further up the mountain to another temple - what should have been a peaceful place was over run with Chinese tourists and their guides with loud microphones! After a nice lunch of wanton soup we walked back to Baoguo Monastery where we were staying. Clearly most people don't walk that far, and it was really nice and quiet walking amongst the bamboo and interesting wildlife, and visiting several monasteries with no other visitors. Ate dinner in town, and whilst the food was nice, seeing ... read more

We flew to Chengdu this morning, and arrived just before 9. Once we'd checked into our hotel we headed out to a nearby area with lots of food stalls and restaurants for lunch. We stuck with wanton soup and rice cakes rather than the pigs' snouts on offer... This afternoon we went to the people's square, which has a big statue of Mao, and the people's park. In the park were lots of people dancing, singing, catwalking, playing badminton, mahjong, cards or drinking tea. There were even men painting calligraphy on the ground with water. Dinner was a Sichuan hot pot, a simmering pot of chilli, peppercorns and oil that you cook your own food in. Not as spicy as we feared from the hype, but quite greasy! Tomorrow we're heading to the giant panda breeding ... read more