On the days we spent scootering around Nanning, I got a very good feel for the place. There is something about being pillion at a relatively low speed that heightens the powers of observation. Things that would have passed me by under normal circumstances hove into view, revealing different facets of life in China.

I also had the privilege of spending time with Xiaoyu's friends in their homes. This again threw up living fragments that I might otherwise have missed, particularly touching upon the rapid changes that Chinese society is experiencing. New apartments replace old dwellings; people move to gleaming, well-planned units with flushing toilets and neat functional kitchens. There are bedrooms and always a balcony with a view to other apartment blocks. And people are very proud of their new homes.

Unfortunately my camera was out of battery power on a couple of these occasions. But I still took plenty of shots on our meanderings between beauty spots and tourist attractions. Xiaoyu took quite a few shots too. Here is one of us outside an impressive public building, the Regional People's Assembly. The other is near an equally impressive bloom of flowers, colourful in the unusually mild winter air.