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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Larry Sweetland" data-source="post: 1761765" data-attributes="member: 27337">Huang ShanWhere?Exactly. From Xiamen we took an overnight train to Tung Xi in Anhui province. This is a short bus ride from Tang Kou, which is near the base of Huang Shan, a famously picturesque mountain popular with Chinese tourists. We stayed one night in Tung Xi then headed up the mountain where we stayed last night. We'd forgotten what it was like to be properly cold, like ice on the trees cold and all that. Must have been over 2 years since our hands have been cold with gloves on.Huang Shan was very pretty and a bit like being inside one of those vertical scroll Chinese paintings with impossibly steep cliffs and funny shaped conifers. It was, however, almost entirely birdless but this could be a seasonal thing. All the birds mentioned below were identified based on what I thought they looked like, given that we don't have a field guide and haven't got the slightest clue what species might occur in this part of China. So please forgive me if I've got any of it wrong. Unexpected highlight was 2 Fukien Slaty Buntings that fed right below us as we sat to consume our boiled eggs in tea that we bought partially to keep our hands warm. These birds were seen quite near the 'Beginning To Believe' viewpoint. By the egg sellers. Perhaps the next most interesting species was Asian House Martin, of which there was a small colony around Xihai Hotel where we stayed. But what they were finding to eat up there in the cold is anyone's guess. Also possibly of interest were a couple of Collared Finchbills in the town of Tang Kou itself, where we also saw a Crested Kingfisher and Brown-breasted Bulbul. A single Rufous-faced Warbler and a few Red-billed Blue Magpies were seen during our ascent, as was a flock of Yuhinas which I'm going to have to look up when I next get to see a bird book (what are the options round here?). The only birds that were reasonably common were Coal Tit, and 'great tits' with green upper mantles which presumably are Japanese Tits?I guess as Shropshire is close enough to Wales we'd better take your phonetic word for it Jacana. And hopefully Mattias there'll be more British splits to tempt you over to visit us, by the time we get home at the current rate! We're having a few hassles trying to get the paperwork we need to get a Russian visa together. Involving trying to find printers that work and faxes that do international calls in tiny Chinese towns where we can't read anything. It's been difficult even with the help of tourist guide extraordinaire Mr Cheng. By the way it's worth visiting Tang Kou just to hear his English accent, which is better than ours. We're still hoping we're going to be able to get the train back to Europe at the beginning of April. At the moment we're having to deal with nonsense like having to give the embassy in Beijing the original copy of the written invitation from a registered Russian travel organisation. What with only having 1 month Chinese visas, no proper address, general communication difficulties, etc, we're not 100% hopeful at the moment. But fingers crossed eh? Oh and H, good luck with migrant phylloscs and thrushes, but if you don't see any you'll know why it is. It's those ruddy kingfishers.Photo = Fukien Slaty Bunting or so we think</blockquote>

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