Well I am currently relaxing in a cafe in Kunming, where the weather is perpetually springlike, and contemplating return to Dalian. After somewhere in the region of 9000km, 2 months and temperatures ranging from -26 to almost 30, I shall get on a 38 hour train back to Beijing, followed a mere 10 hours or so onward to Dalian.

It has been quite a journey, through all sorts of terrain, from tiny villages to some of China's biggest cities, mountains to the endless flat dry plains of north China. Highlights definitely include spending new year in Dingxi and showing my mother and Ralph around for three weeks, as well as the day the weather miraculously cleared in time to see the Dragonback Rice Terraces, and finally going rocklimbing once again. I am also now considerably better at three handed bridge than I previously was.

I am currently struggling with the internet a little, to the extent that it seems to be easier to access cricket scores via a VPN than without, which is decidedly odd. As such, fuller reports and pictures to follow when back in Dalian.