Our route started in Ha Noi and ended in Hong Kong. The West was our favorite. It was amazing to see the features of the people out west. It really became obvious how close humanity really is. The Western Chinese have a lot of Caucasian features. This makes sense as you could literally walk there from Europe. When the Silk Road was going people did just that.

We had hoped to make it overland from Golmud to Lhasa, but decided not to fund the Chinese occupation ($100 USD/day permits).

Limestone peaks near Guilin. We stayed in the backpacker city of Youngshou and explored the area on bicycle. Here you had the opportunity of shooting AK-47's for about $1/round. Youngshou was a great place to hang out for a while. There were regular ferries from nearby to Hong Kong and back.

This guy was selling handmade reed sandles in a Dong village north of Guilin. We bought a pair and couldn't resist a photo. He was also selling pipes.

A "Wind and Rain Bridge" in a Dong Peoples village north of Guilin. We got here by bus. The busses will take you most anywhere you want to go. You can get as remote as you like without any hassles from the Chinese Government.

Part of our journey involved a leg from Guilin to Guiyang. We decided to do some of it by boat. The boat rides are great, and you get to see a lot of villages to which there are no roads.

They weren't expecting us on the boat as not many tourists make it this far out. The route was suggested as a possibility in our Lonely Planet guide. It was definitely a great way to go.

Jack's place in the village of Dali was a great place to hang out, but if you had to poo, you would have to go elsewhere.

This was a pretty common site in Asia. People here carry huge loads. It is not uncommon to hire porters who were half your size and would carry 4-5 peoples backpacks (fully loaded). We saw children about 7 years old carrying baskets of bricks up mountains. WOW!

Village scenes near Lijang (Yunnan Province). This is pretty typical once you get out into the countryside. Mud walls surrounding mud streets.

You earth friendly types might recognize the adobe in the walls. They use it for everything around here. Just plaster it and put a roof on it and you are good to go. Even the walls have roofs.

Outside Dr Ho's place near Lijiang. The villagers wash their vegetables in the stream that runs through town. You don't even want to know where this stream has been..

One of the things we liked about China and Asia in general is how little things have changed. You get to see how we used to do things 100+ years ago. In a lot of ways its good to be reminded of the way things used to be done. You might find a good practice long forgotten.

Every tourist that goes to Lijiang will eventually make it to see Dr. Ho. He has a bunch of "testimonials" written in English. As he doesn't read English, he doesn't know that half of them are pretty sarchastic. Either way its a fun stop. He asks "donations" for his medicinal teas. When you pay a fair price (less than $1) he gives you a hard look. He seems to expect the $10's plus he gets from short term tourists who don't know better (and inflate prices for the rest of us).

Petr and Rob on the hike out to "Walnut Grove" in Tiger Leaping gorge. This area is in the first bend of the Yangtze river in western Yunnan province. The scenery is dramatic as the walls of the river rise up thousands of feet. Once you get to walnut grove you are treated to chinese versions of western dishes.



The area around here is very remote as their are no roads. The Chinese are attemping to put one in here. good luck, as they pretty much have to blast a flat road out of a rock wall. Landslides are regular along the trail making it pretty dangerous during a rainstorm.

Crossing a stream on the trail into Tiger Leaping Gorge. This is a great hike into the back country on the first bend in the Yangtze river. We had a great time travelling with Petr, another travelling friend.

You could find almost anything if you went to enough markets. Need those monkey bones for a special dish? Well you're in luck. We also saw Tiger parts (illegal, but readily visible in the markets), and just about anything else you could imagine.

We visited this monastery at the edge of Tibet near the Yunnan Province in the village of Zhongdian. We spent a day on a bus to get here from Tiger Leaping Gorge. The Monks were fabulous, and invited us into the room for butter tea and barley meal. It was great.



We showed them pictures of the Dali Lama which made them very happy. His image is forbidden here in Tibet. The Chinese government has a replacement lama who they force the Tibetans to follow. Of course they are very aware of this. They have to keep the fake lama's photo in their monastery and cannot show the real one.



The Chinese are very interested in symbolism and go to great pains to make sure that there are no pictures of the real Dali Lama. The force the Tibetans to swear allegiance to the fake lama and imprison those who don't.

We found these live sized "surfing" Buddhas in a monastery near Kunming. The artist who created them about 500 years ago used the resident monks as models. The artist disappeared shortly after the unveiling of his work. Apparently not everyone was happy with it. There are hundreds of these statues, all done as caricatures of the models.

Breaking Camp. Our guides would cook our meals and set up camp. They even tucked you in at night. I think they were very happy to take tourists out camping and make money to boot. They were a great bunch of guys.

One of the guys on our trek amid the beautiful scenery. China is pretty crowded in most places, but out here is big sky country. We spent the next day hiking up to the top of this mountain, only to see many more on the horizon.

We took a 3 day horse trek out of the town of Songpan, north of Chengdu in Sechuan Province. The countryside was beautiful. Hardly what you would expect of China.

We spent the early part of a day at the Panda Research Center outside of Chengdu. If you go late in the day it is too hot for them and they just laze around. Interestingly the research center is nowhere near where an actual panda would live...

The Terra Cotta Warriors near Xian were an amazing site. Built by the first Emperor of China to guard his tomb, they had always been rumoured. They were discovered by a couple of peasants digging a well. If you come here to visit, do this part on your own. Tours tend to take you here for an hour, then lead you to a number of really lame sites for the rest of the day.



We spent the entire day checking out the two excavated parts of the army and the museum. When discovered, the weapons were still sharp! Apparently the Chinese had discovered a process of chrome plating bronze.



The first Emperor's tomb is clearly visible as a mound on the flat plain near Xian. It is rumoured that his casket is made of gold, floating in a pool of mercury. The Chinese are too superstitious to check it out. Even during the Cultural Revolution they left his tomb alone. Apparently he was a pretty nasty guy, and they didn't want to disturb him.

The Longmen Caves are carved into the banks of a river between Xian and Beijing. This area is near the Shaolin Temple where the Kung Fu style originated. The hillsides are pockmarked with thousands of caves, some very small, and others filled with 40 foot statues.



Unfortunately, many of the statues are headless, as the heads now reside in western museums and private collections. This is a typical source of those Buddha heads you see in Antique and specialty stores.

The Chinese are really into Tai Chi and other healthful activities. This is in one of the parks in Beijing. Early in the morning the park fills (Literally) with retirees who all head to whatever group they are a member of and practice their form. It is a real site to see.

On the Great Wall near Beijing. We spent the day hiking along the wall. This section has been restored, but if you walk further down or go to other areas you can see it in a ruin state. The wall runs as far as the eye can see along the top of a ridge.



Since we were in China, Mel and I tried to fit in with the locals.

Mel and the Chairman at the entrance to the Forbidden City in Tianamen Square. Red is an auspicious color in China, the Chinese were happy to see Mel's outfit.