It was a sea of orange...Deep in the heart of rural China we had congregated with scores of Dutch to watch the World Cup Final. The anticipation had been building all day and we had helped Karst & Paulien, the Dutch owners, turn their living room into a tribute to Holland. Complete with flags, banners and even a pumpkin. Having watched with them from the Quarter Finals and extended our stay for the final, we had become honorary Dutch. It had all started the evening we arrived. Holland had beaten Brazil to reach the Quarter Finals and we celebrated with the other Dutch guests. However, celebrating another country's triumph with rice wine is never a good idea and soon Han and I were cycling, in true Dutch style, to a mystery party out in the woods. ... read more

Shanghai Old and New Shanghai is where China has come from and where it wants to be. A proverbial wok where everything gets thrown in. It's old buildings and modest noodle shops are the staples; garlic and ginger; the fresh chillies come from the space-like buildings that pop-up like cardamons; while the sauce comes in the form of the mighty Yangtze that cuts through the city and out to the sea beyond the horizon. One can be amazed and disgusted at the same time but this is the wealthy, throbbing heart of China and you cannot help but feast on it's charm. The city's past and present is no plainer in view than when walking along the Bund. On one side are the aesthetically pleasing old buildings that were the financial hub of the colonial era. ... read more

Having walked the length of Dan Ba town to get our bus to Kangding I was relieved to take my boots and sweaty socks off. Now I am blessed with some poignant feet but even I was surprised when the driver got on board and angrily gesticulated that I put my shoes back on. Unluckily I was sat at the front and the driver refused to move until the smell was relieved. Much to the relief of the other passengers I re-laced and order was restored. We arrived four smell-less hours later to Kangding. The mountainous town of Kangding was bigger than we had imagined. It had high rise flats and big advertising screen televisions. However the whole town/city was nestled in a beautiful valley with looming mountains behind it, tempting for any willing trekkers. Our ... read more

Shangri-La is such big business now that the idea of going to a town renamed after the fabled landscape in James Hilton's novel 'The Last Horizon' did not immediately appeal. Formerly Zhongdian, the local government declared the county's peaks and valleys to be that which is described in Hilton's novel. Hotels, travel agencies and even airports followed suit and the Shangri-La phenomenon was born. We had planned to pass through on route to Deqin, a further six hours north, but the road was closed and so we stayed. In doing so we found welcoming rosy cheeked Tibetan people who danced in the town square and cared little for the Shangri-La boom. At 3200m above sea level the two hour journey from Qiaotou was mainly up steep roads offering beautiful views when the clouds parted. As we ... read more

Everything about getting to China had been difficult. Obtaining a visa, changing money, and even finding the border. However, entering the country was blissfully stress free. We breezed past customs without the least bit of hassle, most officials more laidback than anywhere else we have been. Our James Bond-esque (well Hannah's) attempt at covering our Lonely Planet China book, which now went by the name of 'Rebecca's Choice', went unnoticed. Apparently customs have been known to confiscate Lonely Planet book's that show Taiwan as a seperate country, but who would check two smiley faces like us hey? We set our clocks an hour ahead (now seven ahead of England) and booked tickets for the 8pm sleeper bus to Kumming, further north of Yunnan Province. We had around four hours to wait and so spent the time ... read more