davidandbec

Bec To start off I feel like I should offer you some interesting facts about Guangzhou, as for David and I it was three days of being in one place for the first time is ages, sunning ourselves and applying for vietnam visas! So here we go.... in the 1700's all Chinas foreign trade was restricted to Guangzhou. The British were busy shipping tons of opium over and quickly getting the Chinese well and truly hooked. So there the history is a very old trading port (the Lonely Planet describes it as a massive shopping mall) I think that's more interesting. When we arrived we decided to head to a small sand island called Shamian Dao which is noted for its colonial buildings left over from the British and the French. Its a really pretty place ... read more

David. Well we were both quite sad to leave wulingyuan as it was so beautiful, but what better way to banish our blues than a bit of Chairman Mao mania? The train journey from Zhangjaijie to Changsha was the shortest that we had made in China so we went for hard seats instead of sleeper. The only thing of note on the journey was the group of chinese journalists who were sat with us. They were really friendly, really interested in the UK and just made up that we had decided to visit China. The journey flew by chatting away to them. We arrived in Changsha late so had to take the first hotel we found, by the train station. The train station area of any city is never the best but Changsha was really nasty. ... read more

Bec So following the river cruise we eagerly (well as eager as you can be at 6 am in the morning) clambered off the boat and caught a taxi into Yishang to catch a train to Zhangjiajie later on that day. Yishang is famed as being the gateway to the Three Gorges Dam (big monstrosity hydroelectric project bla bla bla) however it is now famed for making david and bec very happy. We not only had some sunshine for the first time in days, we also stumbled upon a coffee shop (sorry to sound really saaaaad) but we sat there lording it up with some filter coffee (first cup in China), the smelly boat a distant memory, what a moment, small things small traveling minds... Then topped it off with noodles from a street stall in ... read more

David. We went on a Yangze river cruise, from Chongqing to Yichang to see the three gorges. They are one of the major tourist attractions of China, and also the site of the monalithic Three gorges Dam, which is going to flood the area, lower the visible height of the three gorges and displace about 1 and a half million people by 2009. Nice. Chongqing is a bit of a rough town really, a real port town. We did have a belting meal there though, spicy chicken and peanuts and they weren't kidding about spicy. I couldn't feel my tongue afterwards. Great stuff. We boarded the ship about 7pm so there wasn't much to see as it was dark already. The ship was a chinese one so the entertainment was Karaoke all the way! Our room ... read more

David. Right, first up apologies for taking so long to update the blog. We have been running around like blue bottomed flies for the last couple of weeks. We are actually in Guangzhou now taking a well deserved break and letting our visas run down. Also apologies for not posting any photos. I will do it when we stay in a hostel with a chinese and english speaker nearby, as I can't work out how to get them on using a chinese language photo wizard. After Pingyao we headed to Xi'an, mainly to see the terracotta warriors, the eighth wonder of the world according to the chinese tour guide (wait a minute, they said that about the great wall last week??). We stayed in the bell tower hostel, which is OK, centrally located and there were ... read more

David Well we finally found a moment to update our Blog. Landing in Beijing airport after a sleepless night worrying I had everything, then a sleepless night on the plane, was a strange experience. The moment you get out of Arrivals you are introduced to China's favourite game, sell something to the westerner. We couldn't walk 5 yards without a 'helpful' taxi driver offering us a lift. We stayed strong though and made our way to the Bus stop, might as well start on a budget. A long bus ride into Beijing station and we started looking for somewhere to stay. We headed towards where our lonely planet said there was a hostel, being stopped every few hundred yards by rickshaw drivers offering to take us to a hostel (which presumably they got a cut off ... read more

I am sat in work getting this travelblog ready for Bec and I, so I can send the address round to my mates, and generally being excited about going and wishing I wasn't in work! We fly off next monday 7th November, at around 2pm, and arrive in Beijing at 10am the following morning. 3 friends from uni are also going to be there when I arrive, so I will be able to catch up with them as well. The plan is 30 days in China, then into Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand (all max 30 days), and possibly a trip into Myanmar or Indonesia if we have time left at the end. We fly out of Bangkok on the 30th March. Then off to Australia for a month or so, before finally making it to New ... read more