16th August, 2002: Chengdu, China
Just arrived in Chengdu after another mammoth 30-hour trip from the south-west, where I spent a couple of days doing a fantastic hike through the Yangtze valley at Tiger Leaping Gorge. The scenery was fantastic, and we were accompanied by the sound of explosions all day long; the government is building a road at the bottom of the valley to cart busloads of chinese tourists up and down. In the evening we sat on the terrace of a local guy's house watching the sun set on the mountains across the valley and I got chatting to a chinese businessman. I particularly wanted to know what aspects of communism still remained. He told me that as of about 10 years ago, China is not really communist at all. In fact apart from the lack of democracy or freedom of speech (neither of which are specifically communist), the country is more capitalist than Britain was in the 1970s. Since the government sold off 70% of the businesses it owned, China's economy has grown at around 8% per year. The only remnant of communist policy is the fact that land ownership is illegal - you can own your house but you rent the land off the government.

The glacier at Shangri-la (one of about 20 places in the world claiming to be the "real" Shangri-la) was amazing. Standing next to this awesome and ancient lump of snow and ice, it is eerily quiet. But f you listen carefully, every now and then you hear the creak and cracking of the glacier inching its way downhill at a rate of a couple of centimetres a year.

The Chinese tourists are highly entertaining. They tend to roam around in herds, shepherded by a tour guide with a large yellow flag and a megaphone. They like to take photos of each other standing in front of (and if possible blocking the view of) whatever it is they are visiting. So for example there are always flocks of tourists jostling for position in front of the waterwheel in Lijiang. The strangest thing is that they are apparently not allowed to smile in their photos. They either stare stone-faced at the camera, hands by their sides, or adopt some kind of neutral "catalogue pose".

One of the more amusing traits of the Chinese is the singing. On a bus the other day we were slightly bemused to find that many of them burst into song, or just sing along quietly to themselves, whenever someone turns the stereo on. I have to say I think it's great that in a country where freedom of speech is not allowed, they still have freedom of song!! If I was a Chinese person coming to England I would be very surprised that for all our talk of having freedom of speech, we can't sing in public when we feel like it for fear of appearing slightly mad. Even the waitress was humming away to herself the other day. Unfortunately they have an unnerving passion for the carpenters here, and karaoke has taken over in a depressingly big way.

Have just completed some fairly horrific bus rides; 12 hours at a time punctuated by several stops for landslides. The most dramatic was the other day when the mud was still pouring across the road 2 metres deep, while one forlorn yellow digger at the other end toiled away for 2 hours to clear the road. The buses always end up having to gingerly pick their way round, over or through the remains of landslides as the passengers are literally thrown from their seats by the lurching bus, and we pass groups of locals up to their knees in mud trying to free trucks. 67 people were buried by a landslide yesterday in Southern China. You can imagine our relief when we got on a fast, smooth and comfortable night train to Chengdu with mercifully long beds.

Near Chengdu stands the world's tallest buddha statue. At 71m it dwarfed the number 2 contender which was blown up by the Taliban a few years back. Now the local authority, keen to make a bit of cash, are planning to build the world's largest billboard (40,000 sq m) at its feet. Good plan stan!

While in Chengdu I went to visit the Panda research base, the world's foremost panda breeding centre, brought to you by those nice people at Chengdu cigarette company and American General Life Insurance company. Yes, China, the bastion of communism, has succumbed to that bizarre habit of corporate sponsorship of unrelated animals, like "The lions at Taronga zoo brought to you by ING" and all that carry-on. I have to admit though that the pandas were exceptionally cute. The babies were clumsy to the point that I wondered if somebody had been putting rice-wine in the water supply. They were all over the shop!

The police state makes its presence felt. Just the other day I returned to a town after a week to find that the (great) hostel I had stayed at was closed to foreigners until further notice, thanks to those friendly folks at the PSB (Public Security Bureau). Also I can't access the BBC news website, what with it being full of wrong, anti-Chinese propaganda. I suppose I am happier and more productive not knowing what's happening in the bourgeouis countries of the west.

Talking of which hope you are all revelling in decadence. Enjoy the BBC.

Matt