It's been a quiet time of it since we arrived in Chengdu. On our first day here, we had intended to go to the Panda Breeding Centre but the lack of sleep on our long train journey took its toll and we ended up having a lie-in instead. When we did finally get our shit together, we consulted the free map given to us by the hostel and decided to head first for the huge computer district in the south of the city and continue north from there. We had about a 10 minute walk from our hotel to the bus [View Full Entry]

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Sorry about the absence of blogs over the last couple of days but we've been busy travelling to Chengdu by train and trying to catch up on some missing sleep! The internet connection at our current hostel, The Mix and Backpackers Hostel, isn't much cop so I'm going to have to keep it brief tonight. The train journey from Xi'an to Chengdu took about 16 hours and although we were booked into the first class sleeper carriage again, it didn't feel as luxurious as the bunks we have on the way down from Beijing. Nevertheless, after strolling down the train and [View Full Entry]

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I know I'm a little behind schedule with getting the photos on the blog but it's so bloody time-consuming! Any way, here's the latest batch for you from Xi'an featuring the Terracotta Army and our epic tandem ride on the city walls. [View Full Entry]

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Today's mission, should we choose to accept it, was to try and make it to the Terracotta Army without the aid of a guide. It sounded like a tough call and the people at the hostel tried to advise us against it (might be due to wanting to sell us a tour perhaps?) but we decided to give it a go anyway and here's how we got on. 8am we left the hostel armed with 2 big bottles of water, Jish tucked away safely in his pocket and a few munchies for lunch. We'd read in the guide book that we [View Full Entry]

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Despite the lack of sunshine today it was nevertheless a sticky, hot day. Perhaps not the ideal kind of weather for a bit of hard work but that's what fate had in store for us... Our day began with a short walk over to the South Gate of the Xi'an City Wall. We passed through the East Gate yesterday on our mammoth hike to the Big Goose Pagoda and noticed that for a fee, you can go right up on the wall. When we consulted the map it seemed that the South Gate would be closer for us today so that's [View Full Entry]

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Had a brilliant day today just doing our own thing again and basically ignoring much of the tourist trail. We started out with a long walk to the Big Goose Pagoda. Most people catch the bus there and I guess just a month ago, the thought of walking more than a mile would have made me reach for my car keys but not any more! :-) We had a leisurely walk and browsed in curious little shops on the way, veering off briefly to explore what turned out to be a fish market full of live fish, carbs, eels, toads and [View Full Entry]

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So, here we are in Xi'an after enjoying our first experience of Chinese rail travel. We did the 11.5 hour journey (sorry got my times wrong in previous blogs) in first-class - only thr best for Mr & Mrs Harris, you know! Actually, it cost only about £33 each and that got us a soft sleeper compartment with 4 beds of which we had the bottom 2 bunks. It was really comfy, clean and secure and as far as we're concerned - the ONLY way to travel darling! We did have a rude awakening this morning as we didn't think we [View Full Entry]

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Our last day in Beijing has been one of the best so far. It's been a busy, varied and more of a 'Glynn and Jude' type day than we've had in a while. We started off later than planned but were relieved to see the skies were hazy and the temperature wasn't as hot as yesterday, so I decided to get my legs out for only the third time this trip and trundle around in shorts for the day. Our first stop was at the covered market which we found completely by accident. We noticed as we were walking down a [View Full Entry]

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Here's another selection of photos from out and about in Beijing. Many are from the Temple of Heaven which was just incredible. Hope you like them! [View Full Entry]

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Sorry for the delay but at last you can feast your eyes on pictures of all our antics in Beijing! [View Full Entry]

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