Geo: -33.8671, 151.207Our first move on this journey was to travel to Sydney. Our plane leaves tomorrow morning at 9-30 but with check in times etc we could not fly from Adelaide early enough. So we headed to Sydney today.The trip started inauspiciously with difficulties with the taxi. I rang at 12pm and told the dispatcher that we needed a taxi straight away and that our plane was due to leave at 1-25pm. The last couple of times I had ordered a taxi it had come within 5 minutes. This time, after 20 minutes I rang again and "Wayne" the dispatcher told me he had booked the cab for 1-25pm! After I explained again the taxi came 10 minutes later but then it took 30 minutes to get to the airport (even though the cabbie was ... read more

Geo: 31.23, 121.47Yesterday we had the day to ourselves to do some exploring. We have used hop on hop off buses in many other cities and find them very useful both as modes of transport and a way of getting an overview of the places which we may like to explore further. We hopped on the Big Bus just outside our hotel. This took us down to The Bund and along it and then through interesting areas of the city. We hopped off in The People's Square. This used to be the racecourse in colonial days but was then used as a parade ground by the early Communists and has now been turned into a lovely park for the locals. it has all the elements of the Chinese Garden. There is a small lake as well ... read more

Geo: 34.27, 108.9Today we had a full day tour of Xi'an scheduled. We were picked up by Lee, our tour guide, at 9am and headed out of town for the most important destination, the Terracotta Warriors. It was very smoggy but a fine day. Our first stop was at a Pottery and furniture factory where we were shown how the warriors were made. Typical of tour guides all over the world, Lee has his contacts here but it was an interesting place and the man from the factory spoke excellent English. We did buy a small replica of a General and a horse, particularly as we are heralding the Year of the Horse.From there we drove on to the site of the warriors. This remarkable archaelogical site was accidentally discovered in 1974 when a local farmer ... read more

Geo: 39.9056, 116.396Today we decided to return to Qianmen which we had visited briefly on Wednesday. This is the reconstructed area south of Tian'amen square which was opened in 2008 just in time for the Olympics. When I first came here in 1998 it was a market area with outside stalls and was very run down and neglected. It has now been given a complete makeover and the glory of bygone Imperial days has been restored. The street is now a Mall along which trams run. Shopfronts proudly display signs in Mandarin and English claiming the longevity of the business and noting that it is a China Cultural Heritage Treasure. There are also wonderful bronze statues depicting activities of bygone years outside the shops showing their original purposes.It is not just the single street either. There ... read more

Geo: 39.9056, 116.396Last night we were taken for dinner to a rather expensive restaurant, the X.E. Flavour Restaurant, by Dr Sun, Feng and Zhang. This was upstairs in a new building and we walked along several corridors all of which had private rooms on each side. We went into a large dining room where we were greeted by several staff. While we caught up with Feng, Dr Sun ordered and then we were presented with a series of interesting dishes including Peking duck with the pancakes etc as well as dates stuffed with sticky rice( which were delicious) and Tofu (which was not). A whole fish was particularly tasty while there were several other plates of meats, pork, chicken etc. This was all washed down with Yansing beer. Needless to say there was far too much ... read more