In case anyone actually reads this blog and is wondering if I have disappeared off the face of the earth: I'm still alive and kicking and and now in the "Hawaii of China" (as the Government touts it), aka Hainan. Dalian is laughably touted the Hong Kong of the north. Dalian is nice but no other city in China comes close to HK.

Anyway, since last I blogged, I have been around a bit in Guangxi province, namely Guiping, Guilin, Lipu, Longji Rice Terraces and Yangshuo. Longji and Yangshuo were the best: outstanding natural scenery and you can really get away from it all (if you know where to go)

I have put lots of pics of those places on my flickr.com site, and will write something more about them when I get time.

So, in Hainan, I will spend a couple of days in Haikou City, chilling (a bit tired after spending 16 hours on a sleeper bus from Guilin to Hai'an) and then spend the Spring Festival in the countryside with a friend of mine before hitting the beach in Sanya for a couple of days. I am hopefully planning to do a bit of travelling in Yunnan before heading to Dalian.