We have had a chilly time over the past day or so, but have definitely had a fantastic trip. Last night, we set out from the hotel at 5.30pm, all warmly kitted out with everything we could possibly wear....we were headed for the Ice and Snow World where the big exhibition of snow and ice sculptures is - this is the big one. And we were not disappointed, as it was absolutely amazing and everyone had a great time. Snow was all around us and Sophie and William just loved skidding on the snow and making snow angels. They have been so disappointed not to have a snowball fight, but the other excitement last night pretty much made up for it I think. It has amazed us all that there is no actual snow around (except ... read more

This Christmas holiday, we decided we would do a bit of exploring within China as the Chinese don't have holidays so it is much more comfortable to tour around. Seeing as Ian only has a short Christmas holiday, we are away for 5 days - we have ventured 3 hours by plane, north of Shanghai, to Harbin in Heilongjiang Province. Harbin is very near the Russian border and is world famous for the Snow and Ice Festival held every year in January and February. Fortunately, we have been lucky in in that the festival opened in the past few days and construction is well under way of many of the ice sculptures - and quite a few are finished! After a quiet Christmas day at home, we set off yesterday morning and arrived here late afternoon. ... read more

Good evening dear readers! I am writing to you from a very chilly Shanghai, where we have seen temperatures drop to below freezing for the past few days. Apparently, they are going back up to about 11 degrees tomorrow, so we are not really sure whether we are coming or going! We have been shopping today for our snow clothes as we are preparing to head for the north of China during our Christmas break, where we will be experiencing temps of possibly -30 degrees!! We are heading up there on Boxing Day for just a few days. Apologies as ever for the long break. Time here flies so quickly as we have so much to fill our lives. This term has seen Sophie join Year 5....she is becoming a rather confident young lady who has ... read more

In true British style, our days have been started by checking the weather forecast and we were again pleasantly surprised by the warmth in Beijing today. Venturing off on our first proper day without our great leader (poor Ian was back at school again yesterday) our plan was to head to Houhai and take a rickshaw ride around the lake and hutongs. It was a perfect trip for Mum as it involved mostly sitting down! Mum and Sophie went in one, and William and I in the other. We stopped a couple of times as the men wanted us to go and spend money....once down a small shopping alley and then to go inside a courtyard house. This was really interesting to see inside where the families live and to learn a bit about the Feng ... read more

Well, we are thoroughly exhausted now and I think Nanny has never done quite so much walking in all her life! Yet another early start and we arrived at the back door of the Forbidden City by 9am. The weather was a little chillier today, but still perfect for being a tourist! Mum is reading snippets from the guide book right now and it is making much of our day make sense now as we were more than amazed by the size of the whole place. We walked and walked for hours and barely saw half of it, we are sure. Apparently, the imperial household consisted of upwards of 6000 members with a Palace Guard of up to 6000 men, so when we were thinking it would be an empty and desolate place, we were very ... read more