28th March 2009 From one municipality to another, our train from Beijing rolled into Shanghai at 0705, and we quickly - eventually now accustomed to the 'elbows out' walk - made our way onto the subway train and to our Hostel. Here we are staying on Duolun Lu, which is very famous in Shanghai as being the old stomping ground of artists, poets and as home of some very famous Chinese literature. After checking in, we jumped straight back onto the subway heading back to the train station; our visa is running out fast, and with our next stop, Hong Kong, [View Full Entry]

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As we have been in Beijing for nearly five whole days - and we think this is some kind of personal best - this is quite a long blog. So deep breaths, here we go... 23rd March 2009 Our train arrived at 9.30am and we were instantly hit by the cold. We joined the longest taxi queue we had ever seen and 40 minutes later were heading for our hostel in the famous Hutong streets. There are a number of the streets around Beijing which are basically narrow alleyways full of single storey buildings in which there is not necessarily any [View Full Entry]

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20th March 2009 Our train arrived at 0630, and as we left the station we were met by the huge city walls of the old city of Xi'an, which surrounded the neon lights of McDonalds, KFCs and countless other chains. We immediately realised that this would be our first taste of 'big city' China. Xi'an, as one of China's first capitals, has a long history spanning over 3000 years, meaning Xi'an was a bustling city long before Rome even existed. It was also the eastern terminus of the famous Silk Road. As much as this is evident, the city has very [View Full Entry]

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16th March 2009 - Continued... After arriving in the town of Emei Shan at 6pm, we took a taxi to our hostel for the night where we shared ideas with other travellers on our best route for the following day. Emei Shan is one of four Buddhist mountains, reaching a peak of 3,099 metres (which is 10,167 feet, and according to Wikipedia, twice the size of Ben Nevis.) The route to the top is scattered with monasteries and temples which you can stop into depending on your route. Because of time allowances, our aim was to reach the peak by the [View Full Entry]

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This blog is dedicated to our mums...the long awaited arrival in Chengdu, home of the Panda Bears! 14th March 2009 Having arrived back in Kunming the previous day, and having a flight out this evening, we decided to have a low key day. We sorted out the long over-due laundry we had rushed through on arrival last night before sitting down to breakfast and checking out the local map. Around lunch time we walked to the nearby Greenlake Park, which the Lonely Planet Guidebooks describe as one of China's finest. We spent a short while here - weekend masses meant it [View Full Entry]

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11th March 2009 A strange breakfast awaited us this morning. Poached eggs.....floating.....in soya sauce soup. It was good for the first bite! After breakfast, Mr Liou walked us to the bus stop to ram us onto an overcrowded bus, and see us on our way, but not before mocking Hayley's ripped jeans! We arrived back in Jianchuan, and grabbed a bus to Dali, 4 hours away. Dali was once the capital of this region, and like Lijiang and Shaxi, has an Old City and a New City. The difference here being that the Old City has been almost totally rebuilt to [View Full Entry]

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9th March 2009 Way back when we were in Udaipur, in India, we met some good friends from France who shared some secret knowledge with us.... tales of a tiny and beautiful town called Shaxi, 4 hours south west from Lijiang.... We set off with the names of 2 towns written down and a hand drawn map. A little dubious (with our tendancy to get lost), we were pleasantly surprised when, lo and behold, 4 hours later we arrived - via Jianchuan - in Shaxi. If Lijiang is old China for the tourists, then Shaxi is for China. It is a [View Full Entry]

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7th March 2009 We woke up early, excited and anxious about the forthcoming couple of days. We were force fed breakfast by Mama (of Mama's Guesthouse), before jumping/squeezing onto a mini-bus with the other 5 trekkers for the 2 hour transfer to Qiaotou, the west start/finish point of Tiger Leaping Gorge. Tiger Leaping Gorge is one of the worlds deepest gorges, measuring 4000 metres from the peak of the mountains to the bed of the Yangzi river. Although we had seen pictures of the gorge beforehand, they did not prepare us for what was in store. We were dropped off at [View Full Entry]

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After feeling anxious about our upcoming trip, sat writing our blog in Hanoi, it turns out that this border crossing couldn't have been any smoother! (Well, it went pretty well considering we didn't have anyone to hold our hands this time!) On finishing our blog we went for some dinner and then headed for the overnight train to Lao Cai where we were due to arrive at 6am the following morning. Our cabin was quite luxurious compared to previous overnight trains, and amazingly, we arrived early. We found ourselves sitting on the train platform at 5.30am with time to kill. 3rd [View Full Entry]

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We can't believe it! We are sitting in an internet cafe with passport (plus visa), train tickets and morale all in check. What a difference a few days make! Having had a trying few days in Hanoi, we have just had an amazing long weekend cruising around the UNESCO World Heritage site that is Halong Bay. Halong Bay is a group of 1,969 Islands and Islets in an area of 1,500 square KM. Even without the sun, it is spectacular and we think it is a contender to rival Ko Phi Phi in natural beauty. We'd like to say nothing went [View Full Entry]

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