The bus back from Xingping was uneventful except for the end destination. It was the correct town but wrong station (aagh!)and we had to trudge back 5km to the centre of Yangshuo. Lunch was dumplings in a local place where you washed your hands from a hose out the back. Earlier in the day Steve had pointed out some viewpoints to us – the highest of which was the TV Tower. Standing at 350m high we decided this was worthy of our time. After being directed through a maze of back streets to the steps by locals we were on our way. The going was tough with lots of leaves – both swaying and lying and a ton of insects that ate us alive. But we got some good photos out of it!

We eventually found our bikes and made it back to the guesthouse and within 10 minutes had two tickets booked for the big show in town – Impressions Liú Sãnjiê. Directed by moviemaker Zhang Yimou (who directed the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Olympics) this was a spectacular show with over 600 performers and takes place in the Li River against the backdrop of the beautiful Karst Scenery.The show was in Chinese but it didn’t matter as the combination of boats, lights and costumes made up for the incomprehensible dialogue.

What a great end to a busy day! The next day we had a late train to Hangzhou booked. With our room kept for us and the promise of a shower on our return we chose to go and climb Moon Hill. Richard “I’m not a crook!” Nixon had once climbed the same hill.The climb was 800m but was pretty worth it.

You can see why it’s called Moon Hill!

The journey back was hilarious as we passed around TukTuk drivers like a bottle of drink before an attempted scam by the last one on reaching near town. We calmly left the money we thought he should be paid on the seat and got out as he continued to shout at us and mime handcuffs! The drama continued as we tried to top up the credit for the Chinese SIM that Karen bought in Shenzen. It took 6 shops to work our that as we bought our SIM card in another region (still China!) we could only top up in certain shops.Three more shops later we had topped up! #LoveChinaHateChina With some takeaway sandwiches, a real picnic this time and showered we were ready for another overnight train. Next stop Hangzhou…