Michael Tyler

Visited the Theatre in Guillin on the representation of the girl at the airport tourism desk.

This is my first taste of Chinese culture ‘real’.

Here’s some pictures..

Managed to get some pictures of the cast backstage.

Spent the day travelling.

Am now In Guillin.

Which looks like this.

View from Hotel roof.

View from Window.

Sort of like a dirty version of Vancouver.
If you’ve been there.

Lijiang Waterfall
The Hotel is called the Lijiang Waterfall Hotel, 5 star.
It’s in the Guinness book of records for having the largest artificial waterfall at 75 meters.

Made my first sino-internet booking yesterday.

Elong
ELong are part of the Expedia group of companies one of their representatives Adam Clayton, VP of Sales was speaking at the eye for travel conference.

System
The system over here is very different. Suffice to say I got better service out of Elong than I did Ctrip, another travel operator staking claim to the internet travel market in China.
Ctrip refused to recognise cities I was typing into the search. It may have been my mistake.
Elong got the booking.

The system is still cash based so don’t expect real-time confirmations, credit card details and e-tickets. A Chinese person will turn up at your hotel on a scruffy rickshall with a set of paper tickets in hand, take your money, then ride off.
Nothing more advanced than that.

Mine are due to turn up tomorrow, so we’ll see how this techno-poor approach deals with the demands of modern western travel expectations.

Xingcheng is China’s oldest seaside resort.

This is not saying much.
Don’t expect a promenade and kiss me kwik hats, this is not Brighton.

Sino Tricks
The taxi driver tried to drop me in the old town. I insisted he drove me to the beach.

I took these pictures of the beach and resort at Xingcheng.

I’m looking to visit more Chinese beaches later in the blog.

In the sake of continuity and fairness I’ll leave scathing comments until I’ve seen a little more of what China has to offer.

Where the great wall meets the sea.

Film crew