Li River Cruise, Guilin to Yangshuo, China

I stayed in the Bravo Hotel, Guilin, for one night as, like most tourists, we were just there for the river cruise. The Bravo Hotel is located right next to the lake a pleasant walk from Guilin centre, with views of the hills in the distance. The centre of Guilin is very modern with a Louvre style glass pyramid in the central square. There is a good selection of places to eat and drink from expensive business hotels to small bars and restaurants. I found a "German" bar that sold outrageously expensive bottles of beer from around the world.

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The best way to see the wonderful scenery around Guilin is to take a half day cruise on one of the many river-cruise boats from Guilin Yangshuo. The scenery is stunning with the impossible limestone hills constantly amazing. Lunch was included but we could see into the kitchens of other boats along the river and decided that our boat was unlikely to be different and opted not to partake. Instead we had the observation deck to ourselves and that incredible view.

After checking into the Magnolia Hotel, an inexpensive comfortable hotel, we had a late lunch in ''Andy's Bar'' (pizza) which, no doubt had a kitchen every bit as hygienic as the boat's but we couldn't see it. Yangshuo is a very touristy place, with every shop and bar aimed purely at extracting tourist money, but somehow it didn't matter. The shops sold the usual useless rubbish and the bars and restaurants were mostly a bit substandard.

The famous cormorant fishermen are obviously entering into the spirit of tourism, waiting on the jetty for that lucrative photo opportunity, with a couple of cormorants on a long bamboo stick. It is also possible to book a nighttime boat-trip to watch the cormorants in action. We arranged this trip on arrival at the hotel and were collected on foot by a very vague guide who took us to the jetty where we joined a group of 30 or so in 2 boats to follow Cormorant Fishermen in their boats. The cormorants have string tied round their necks so they can't swallow the larger fish and the fishermen make the birds regurgitate the fish when they return to the boat. I decided not to eat fish in Yangshuo. A memorable and interesting excursion

After the fishing trip we had the worst Peking Duck ever washed down with "Great Wall" red wine which was surprisingly drinkable and cost just £6, followed by a drink in a bar, sitting on a balcony overlooking a sewer lit with red lanterns.

The following morning we were picked up and taken back to Guilin stopping off at "Shan Gri La" a Chinese tourist theme park. Interesting and quite attractive with a wonderful backdrop. Certainly worth a visit if you are passing and have time to kill. We flew home to London stopping off in Hong Kong briefly.