quick run down

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hello there, well as its been soo long since ive had time to sit at the net and ive left my book which lists every thing ive been up to i thought i wud do a quick break down of wat weve done since ive last spoken to you.
ok we arrived in Beijing after a very long flight, i developed a cold and Sarah's eyes were streaming from the air conditioning. We arried to our hotel after nearly beeing completly ripped off by our taxi driver- but we got the hotel staff involved and refused to pay which was very good! No one speaks English in China and there are no signs in English so it really is difficult to get around by yourself unless you speak mandarin! We expected this language barrier but with the olympics comming we thought there may be a bit of ENglish- so a bit of a culture shock compared to India esp as i had forgotten to buy a phrase book for China in the end. However- we were driving through Beijing, and it was sooo peacefull- there were ordely lines of traffic, sky scrapers- traffic lights- barley any beeping- no tut tut-s u cud have been in New York city- so developed! we met our tour leader- Leya who is Cantonese and has such an amazing grasp of English- she's excellent and really young so good fun! She showed us to a local restaurant as the tour group were out at a acrobatics show- including claire-the menu is in pictures and in chinese- so we were helped by Leya on wat to order- i had my face blown off by the spice- so not much diff to India- but again soo yummy that i simply had to keep eating!
bumped into Claire and our tour group in the street- v bizarre- and went to bedfordshire.
Next day we did the great Wall which was really fun. sadly Sarah wasnt feeling well so she coudnt walk the whole of the section that the group did- but she went pretty far, and then she got this huge zip rope- across the lake at the bottom of the wall- so brave we couldnt believe she did it but she didnt think she could walk down any further- so top marks to her! me and claire and the rest of the group bar one were too scared to do it- wimps! oh we also experienced our first communal squaters along the way tot eh wall, basically squat toilets with no doors- Chinese dont really care about privacy in toilets- and thisa is a pretty regular occurance.
next day6 we did Tianamen square and saw the outside of Mao's tomb- quite similar to where Ho Chi Minh is buried as it was based on Chinas famous square, however we couldnt go inside anything as it was all being refurbished for the olymics and arrival of tourists. We did go into the Forbidden City which was behind the square- it was incrediable so many rooms and temples, and we heard many stories of the different dynasties and the emperors concubines!
in the same day we went to a disabled school and had lunch, a calligraphy lesson, a performance and tea with some students at this school- it was so much fun we played this cool game like hackey sack- and the students there were all grown adults- or young adults. i ended up buying thesee wiked cards that they had designed, and we also got a quick walk through of the hutongs- the older selltements in Beijing- where many have already been knocked down to be replaced by skyscrapers, but lucky the government has now recognised the importance of these buildings- and have begun to protect them.
We then got an overnight train to X'ian where we saw the Terracotta Warriers- i could not believe how big the space was or the scale that they were burried in was- its litterally altogether about 3 football pitches if you put them all together- it really is amazing and completly unexpected- the way this pne king had ordered a whole army to be created and burried with him was unimaginable. each warriers, horse and cart, etc had the artists name on it so that if any of them broke the artist would be killed! sadly alot of it was destroyed not long after it was completed by revolters, but the archeaological teams have been painstakingly piecing them back together- and aparently you lot have a load in England at the mo- typical!
In X'ian we alsaao did a historical museaum-- oh we had amazing breckie at this youth hostel and watched a bit of bridget jones diary 2 of all things- quite bizarred but very welcome in the puring rain and early hours of the morning after a night train. we also did a long bike ride around the city wall- which was fantastic and i looked like kermit the frog in my green poncho- yer more rain- it gave great views of the city- and the many solar panels on top of the houses!
ooo running out of time again- quick break downs of what else weve done
we have just come off a three day river cruise of the Yangtze river-claire and i were in our element guessing the geographical processes behind everything- however we honestly didnt know the answers if we were right or not so it was all guess work- think our geo degrees have been well worth it! again it was all rain rain along the cruise- we actually had really nice accomadation compared to wat we expected and free tea wenever which was great! we also were dragged into singing Karaoke by opur tour leader- the Chinese love it- honestly they have no fear- everyone gets up even if their shockingly bad! lets just say the even the watery beer its tasting better these days- the singing can be pretty painful- esp as we had to sit on a 5 hour nboat ride with the boss of a boat squarking away constantly in Chinese selling stamps, making propaganda speeches about the relocation of the people along the river for the dam, and generally tering on, we had to stuff tissue in our ears to take the edge of her voice- i honestly didnt know someone could talk and sing constantly for that long! anyway the trip was interesting still and it was a good laugh after
we also went for a few days walking up mount Emei- we stayed in these twqo beautiful monastries- one at the bottom of the mountain and one midway- we got to watch the morning chants at around 4 or 5 am- was very peacefull, and our open air aquaters had views to fight over! i slipped and made a prat of myself in the middle of the monastry but good old tiger balm came to teh rescue!
right def hav to go now sorry its rushed, heard u had a nice weekend- heat wise hope ur all well love u all

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