South into China

So another long silence from us I'm afraid. Things got a bit busy there for a while, and our Biejing hotel didn't have internet access. Also, China has blocked the Blogger website, so I can't see what we last wrote, and am having to submit this post by email. That means no more pictures till Vietnam in a few weeks (booo...)
 
Our last few days in Mongolia were great. We spent 3 nights at another camp, this time in some much more alpine scenery. All very relaxing - days spent rafting lazily down the river, and strolling in the hills. Nights were spent huddling under ridiculous numbers of blankets as it was quite absurdly cold at night. Seriously, at 7 in the morning when we woke up I could see my breath in our Ger. Fortunately the Mongolians are quite good at isolating themselves from the cold (they're used to -30 much of the winter). We had loads of blankets, a wood-burning stove in our Ger, and Vodka to keep us warm. We felt just like the locals... 
 
Then we were off on the last 36 hours of the Trans-Mongolian into Beijing. We left Beijing not quite sure what to make of it. It had been pretty exhausting as it takes ages to get anywhere, and if you make any mistakes (get off at the wrong stop / try to visit something that is closed) then getting back on track can take forever. Also, it was UNBELIEVABLY BUSY. We've never seen a city so busy. The Forbidden City at times resembled a football crowd - there were hundreds of people all pressing themselves up against little glass windows to try and get photos of the stuff inside some of the main buildings. We spent as much time amazed by the crowds as we did by the (admittedly impressive) Ming and Quing Dynasty architecture.
 
We saw some fab sites, and had lots of fun, but to be honest were pretty glad to be going somewhere of a more manageable size afterwards! And now we're nestled between limestone carsts in the backpacker mecca of Yangshuo. It's about 35 degrees, the sun is shining, the scenery is beautiful and we're getting ready to head over to our evening cooking school. It feels a long way from Beijing (which it is). We're in this area for a few days to relax, check out the scenery and some of the local villages.

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