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, [View Full Entry]

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18th July So the next two days we spent just being in Olina's city. We went and booked our coach and trip to the mountain Huang Shang which we would got to on saturday. So today i had a sleep in and woke to find all Olina's friends in the flat, they had come round to have dinner and play some games. Olina's mum came home from work especially to cook us some nice dishes for lunch. They were very yummy as usual and i had a chance to see some of Olina's other friends which was nice. Then we went [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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Shanghai, well if like busy cities that are hot and sweaty here is the place to come. We got up early on the 14th and caught a coach to Shanghai and then went to a hostel which we booked. It was a good job as when we arrived they were already full and still other travellers were pilling through the door to try and get in. Even so it was quite a good hostel to meet people. We got our bags behind the desk and went straight for some food, which was evidently served out of someones garage on the street- [View Full Entry]

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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: [View Full Entry]

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So daisy has gone :-( thought i would update my blog of the last few things we did together before she left. 12th July Today we ventured to a strange place. It is a village only half an hour away from where Olina's lives. It is a completely communist village, the only thing is, is that everyone is rich! It's one of the richest places in china and its weird, all the houses are the same. Even though it was a bit of a surreal experience it was well worth the view at the top of a tower and it sparked [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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Hello again! So have been having a wicked time since last was on here. We left Olina in Nanjing and headed on the train to Xi'an. Unfortunately we could'nt get a bed so we had seats. We had the impression that the journey would be 14 hours over night but no no, we got speaking to a phd student and he told us it was 19 hours!! Gutted. But we made it through with harry potter and ipod saving me. We arrived in Xi'an to massive heat! we bought our train tickets for the nesxt leg of the journey straight away [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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So it's hot in china! Since the last blog we have been around olina's city some more in search of some postcards. Unfortunately we could'nt find any so we went to a photo shop and printed some photo's which have been sent as postcards. During this we took a ride on a little mans bike around the city which was fun. (Olina did'nt seem to understand the novelty of this for me and Daisy. ) However the roads are like death traps and motorbikes come at you like a swarm of bees if you even step out into the road, we [View Full Entry]

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