Well it took a record breaking 1 day and with another page taken up in the passport I have an extra 30 days in China, however I will not be using all of them and this country is just too big for just a 30 stay visa. For a person who hates form filling and tries to avoid it at all costs it was pretty straight forward, shame that can't be said for finding the building that I needed to go to. I vow now to burn Lonely Planet at the first opportunity. The address it gave and which I first went to had been closed down for some time, the men in a hut promptly gave me a card and told me to go to another government building, on arriving there and another hut and ... read more

Well I made it and I have to say that every bump in the road, every time I woke up with an aching back on those hard sleeper trains it was all truly worth it. The day started for me at 5.45 after a hearty breakfast of porridge and the much needed cup of coffee I was on my merry way. Jiuzhaigou National Park is famous for its turquoise lakes and rushing waterfalls. After an exhausting day wondering the paths of the park I wearily dragged myself back to the hostel. I will keep this entry brief as I think you will agree with me the photos say so much more. These are just a few photos as i just couldn't stop taking pictures, hopefully they will give you an idea. Just to let you know ... read more

After a few train journeys in China now I think it warrants a blog update of my experiences so far and not all of them pleasant ones but regardless for me, it is still a great way to travel. Since I have been training it in China I have been going for the hard sleeper which is the dorm sleeping of train travel and either end of the carriage are the sections for the ablutions and urn for the hot water. So basically, everybody is thrown together for the duration of the journey and nothing is ever sacred on these journeys, nothing. My first solo journey was from Beijing to Pingyao, the form you follow is that you give your ticket to the mistress off the carriage and she then gives you a credit card ... read more

Well here it is, one of China's best preserved walled towns, though of course touristic it has been a great place to visit for the past couple of days. In this time I have walked every square inch of it's cobbled pathways, seen it's walls from every angle taken pitures of all four gates, marvelled at it's Qing dynasty courtyards and when the nightime comes the red lantern-hung lanes are illuminated against the imposing town walls. Phew, don't where that little monalogue came from. So in other words I have taken another memory carf load of pictures that somehow at the time look great but in reality why did I bother. Against my better judgement I did take myself on off another tour but in the end it didi make sense and was far more coost ... read more

This was the last leg of my epic train journey and I will have to say the best, for several reasons, the scenery seemed to get even more vast and forever changing the carriages seemed to be getting bigger and more airy (thankfully) and of course how could I forget travelling across the second biggest desert in the world, the Gobi Desert and last but not least the other passengers. It seemed that this was the tourist train, there were no locals on this one t all and we were bumping into people we had met at previous stops. Another particular bonus was the beer was cheaper on this train and the restaurant carriage was like a film set from Out of Mongolia (just made that film up). Another fact, the distance we covered on this ... read more