Language barriers can't stop us!

China is so hard to travel within without being able to speak the language... Be it in a hostel without anyone who can really speak English and without access to the Google but today we did it! Before our epic journey began we needed coffee and after a wander we found a place that looked like a business centre but they did sell coffee. We went in and ordered one coffee for £2.50, roughly, but within a few minutes a woman came over and offered us free coffees each in exchange for a photograph of us with the coffee. Perks of being foreign really! After coffee and with just a scrap of paper with some Chinese characters on and two bus numbers to catch we managed to get to Jinci Temple which was an achievement in itself. We had to look out for every bus stop to see the numbers of buses that stop there to work out where to get off to change to the next bus. The grounds of the temple were lovely to walk around even though a lot of the buildings were built in 2007 but made to feel older. We paid entry to the temple but we are not sure that it was worth us going in. There's only headings in English and brief sentences on details of each building. There are beautiful buildings, waterways, bridges and trees however. Nick even fed the fish crumbled up biscuit at one point. We left the temple and luckily found a taxi guy outside who we managed to let know that we wanted to visit a Buddha that is carved into the mountain side. Upon arriving we took the little buggy up to the bottom of the mountain where after a little walk we were greeted by the huge Buddha tribute. It was incredibly impressive and once we climbed to the top we just sat and admired it for a while before heading back down. With the help of another woman we managed to get a taxi to take us to the bus stop where we boarded the same buses back. The second bus was so rammed, you can just make out Nick in the photo with his black and blue bag! The sense of achievement stepping off the bus onto the street where we started was immense. We had done it! There was only one thing left to do and that was to go for pizza! Overall a very fulling day.Les mer