Nanning

A days travelling on two buses brought us to Nanning, the capital city of Guangxi Province (in China think of a province as equivalent to a European country). As we arrived we were amazed at the number of new high rise offices, development banks and most importantly KFCs and Pizza Huts. This sparkling new city looked like it had been built from scratch in the last five years and is clearly another example of Chinas rapid growth.

We soon realised it was an unexceptional city, the only memorable thing being our visit to the exotic food market. We quickly lost our appetite as we wandered past stall after stall selling all manner of delicacies including small birds (still alive couped up in tiny cages) and dogs and cats (both very much dead hanging from hooks ready for the BBQ). (Guinea pig in Peru was ok but I couldn't manage a whole border collie!- M) The market was packed with locals but we hot footed it to the nearest Pizza Hut where the most exotic thing on the menu was a stuffed crust!

We did enjoy a trip to a massive scenic park. We saw people zorbing on a lake (so New Zealand has not got the monpoly on the zorbing business Bette) and walked through the longest bamboo passageway in the world! Wow! We also have to mention the crazy Chinese girl that we met who immediately wanted to take lots of pictures of us with her.