Lauren Tyson

21st July Today we got up at 5am and got our things together for the mountain we were going to climb. We visited a temple/old house which was beautiful as usual on the way to the mountain. Then we got taken for lunch and after we were driven to a small village on the edge of the river. We got on a boat and it was stunning just beautiful scenery all around. We got off the boat at a few stops the first was a chance for us to see a very small village where we saw a traditional chinese show, it was rather strange but hey long sleeved outfits to the floor and flappping them about is'nt exactly my idea of a show. Next stop we got off and saw a tree that was over ... read more

Last time i finished with the day that Daisy left to go home and how we bumped into some famous basketball player. Well the next mroning it felt like me and Olina were starting a new part of the trip, with Daisy gone we got up and had some breakfast from a local bakery in Shanghai and then went and caught a lift back to Olina's flat. Once home we got a bus straight into town and went to an Opticians where i got some glasses for only £15 with my perscription in (Best not tell BOOTS, think i'm suppose to wear ones from there since i work there). Was quite a lot of fun in the opticians mainly because Olina and her boyfriend found it amusing at how ridiculous i look (or think i look ... read more

13 th July Today is Party Day! It is tradtion in China that when you move into a new house/flat you hold a party whether it be a few relatives fro a meal or 30 people at a massive hotel. Olina's family opted for the latter. Yes 300 people we had to sit with. To start the day we got up and went out to eat noodles with lots of people we didnt know. Then came back to the flat whilst lots of people came and went, me and daisy read and then got ready into some slgihtly more respectable clothes: dresses. When we arrived at the hotel there was also a wedding taking place, this was interesting as in mine and daisy's words it was 'taky' very very taky. The bride did look nice though. ... read more

So, we headed from Xi'an leaving behind the terracotta warriors and the friendly fellow travellers. We have come to realise that our domestic tour of China has allowed us to learn more about the customs and traditons of a chinese culture. the fellow travellers we met seemed to have a lack of knowledge in certain areas such as birthday traditions and pop culture in China, which we hadmanaged to acquire whilst staying with Olina. Anyway, we got the train to Yichang which turned out to be 16 hours. We figured out to how to make hot noodles with the trains supply of boiling water and enjoyed it as our meal for the journey. We also met somemore accomodating Chinese students. Two boys helped us to figure out the train timetable for our next journey and took ... read more

So it was very hot in Wuxi but the day after it poured down...so hard all the people travelling on their mopeds had these massive waterproofs on which also covered their motorbikes!! Today we stayed in olina's house finalised our travel plans and then went into town on the night time after eating Chinese dumpling which were yummy. The next day we woke up to more rain and got a lift to the bus station where we caught the bus to Zhenjiang (where Olina's old university is). We arrived at 1130am and put our bags down in the hostel after meeting Olina's boyfriend. We went to Olina's university which was like the size of a small town..no joke, we went to the top of one of the accommodation blocks and you could'nt see the end of ... read more