By Gavin Jon Mowat, People's Daily Online

Mysterious dark green mountains reaching up through the mist toward the sky, still, glass like water slowly meandering through the peaks, local fishermen in straw hats punt their bamboo rafts around the water looking for the best place to cast their nets and wild birds watch it all unfold. I think this is an image quite a lot of westerner's conger up when they imagine China. And it's one that I couldn't prevent from entering my mind when we first decide to go to Shidu, the Guilin of the north.

However this idyllic image was quickly shattered in a somewhat unexpected manner… Normally on a journey into the Beijing countryside you would either take a ride on a really overcrowded country bus or barter to hitch a lift on one of the run down illegal taxis that will take you to your destination and back for a price. But instead we hitched a ride in a convoy of Vauxhall Polo's, each complete with walkie-talkies and young excited drivers. China has made a giant leap from the perceptions of it's ancient past into a modern reality. Today's Chinese youth are as upwardly mobile as they come, in fact even more so. I can't ever recall going on a road trip in the UK equipped with walkie-talkies…

Charades anyone

Deep in thought