Another travel day, another bullet train ride. This time we are journeying 5hrs from Chongqing to Yangshou, a distance of over 1,250km.

After an initial 45min coach drive from our Yangtze River boat to Chongqing train station, we had an hour or so to kick around before boarding our train.

Chongqing train station like others we’ve visited in China is on a huge scale and has more of an airport feel to it, than that of a train station. Entering requires you to show your passport and again when you board the train.

As to the station itself it’s ultramodern and puts the UK train station system to shame. They have lots of restaurants for all tastes, Chinese and western and provide clean well kept toilets and cleaning facilities despite catering for tens of thousands of passengers every day.

Navigating our way around the station is helped by having all signs in Chinese and English, which was a pleasant surprise when we first visited.

The seating areas are vast and again modern and comfortable with plenty of room to stretch out with luggage. Like the English the Chinese love to queue, but perhaps are a little more forceful when moving themselves forward, so our guide made sure we were always in position a good 15mins before the train was due to arrive.

Once on the platform the trains have all been on time and like the stations, are modern and comfortable, as well as fast. Today’s achieved a cruising speed of 275km which is no mean feat when you consider the number of mountains we went through and the sheer number of tunnels they’ve had to dig. It’s a colossal achievement and makes getting around the country very accessible for all.

After 5hrs on the train, we were well read, fed and watered and ready to explore the wonderful landscapes in and around Yangshuo.

We managed to get a quick photo of our train before we departed which illustrates how modern and aerodynamic their trains are.

The one hour drive to our hotel took us through the most amazing landscape, reminiscent of Ha Lang Bay and Ninh Binh in Vietnam, with steep mountains jutting up into the sky. The scale of the mountain range is immense and continued all the way to our hotel in central Yangshuo.

This part of China was until very recently agricultural dependent and as a result poor in relation to the rest of the country.

This all changed in the 1980s, when the area became popular with foreign backpackers and organized tours began by the late 1990s. At the time, domestic tourists represented only a small fraction of the county’s visitors, but they soon outnumbered foreign tourists by 2000.

The influx of tourists and wealthy Chinese has seen living standards significantly improve, along side this the introduction of the bullet trains, has enabled their fruit and veg production to reach the whole of the country increasing production and jobs.

This said, the area still feels a little impoverished. There are however signs this is changing with the most notable being the opening of an upmarket shopping centre with Nike, Hugo Boss and Armani all due to arrive in the coming months.

After checking into our pleasant hotel, we went out with our tour group to explore the city. We visited an area aptly named West Street, after the influx of western travellers who have enabled the local economy to shift towards tourism away from farming.

Yangshuo, is a resort town and is known for its dramatic karst mountain landscape and outdoor recreation. The town is set amid pinnacles like Bilian Feng (Green Lotus Peak), which has a hiking trail to the top.

Tour boats offer cruises on the Li River past picturesque countryside from the town of Guilin to the north.

The pedestrianised street was awash with local Chinese and lots of tourist shops selling their wares. It’s interesting to see how far they have come in such a relatively short period, with the introduction of American culture in the form of KFC and McDonalds.

West Street has a great stretch of bars and restaurants, all are colourful and make for an appealing lineup.

We walked down the street to where it met the river and spied a few of the younger locals in traditional dress ready to be photographed.

The views out over the Li River were stunning, framed by the steep mountains and close up by local fishermen going about their business as they have done for hundreds of years.

After our walking tour of West Street we headed to a restaurant that our guide recommended with a group of our tour crew.

After a delicious and filling dinner, we were all feeling a little fatigued after our day of travel, so wisely we choose to head back to our hotel and bypass the souvenir stalls for another night!

By 9pm the centre was becoming very busy with all the locals and Chinese tourists out and about enjoying their evenings.

Tomorrow we continue with our early rises and a 7.30am cycling tour around the countryside before it gets too hot. We are looking forward to visiting Guilin and getting up close to the paddy fields and the beautiful flowers that grow along the Yulong River.