Guilin... its like our Brighton, though not.

Yesterday we flew to Guilin, a holiday destination seemingly on every person in China's list, the city is considered to be a small rural city with a population of only 700,000, which when you compare that to the 20 million of Beijing I suppose does seem quite small. The first thing we notice as the plane begins its descent is just how green it is everywhere. This is the area we have both been looking forward to seeing, the place that captured our hearts when we saw photos in all the guide books. I'm going to try and not say too much today as I'm still recovering from a touch of SARS, fortunately I have been able to recover without the need of any strange Eastern medication despite being offered the chance to partake on several occasions.

On the first day we concentrated on a tour around Guilin city which included the famous Elephant Trunk Hill (so called because it looks like an elephant drinking from the river), an amazing park that covers over 297 acres and includes several hills (Camel Hill for example), rivers and caves; wild monkeys also roam the undergrowth.

We ended the tour by visiting some limestone caves nearby which were lovely though sadly had become a little too commercial and were overrun with people trying to sell you memorabilia, which has pretty much become par for the course at any major location we have been to.

After recovering for a bit back at the hotel we ventured out to explore the local area. We found the ancient city gate which stood next to a Banyan Tree that was over 700 years old and then went on to find a night market which was very vibrant and busy and continues until midnight. Sadly once again this was pretty much aimed at tourists and just sold the same tat we have seen all across China, but the atmosphere was pretty cool. Searching around for somewhere to eat, I am sorry to say that we caved in and ate at Pizza Hut. Shhh don't tell anyone!