We contemplated not going back to the sanctuary today, however we felt we had made a comitment that we must see through and besides it was only one more day after all. Some of us went back, not all of us wanted to so it was a little quieter than when there is the whole group of us. We spent the day either sitting around waiting to be told what to do, and when we were working it was either weeding or feeding the pandas. We didn't mind the weeding, although it was hard work as it was pulling up vegtable patches and lots of bamboo sticks it was better than doing nothing and it was nice to be doing some manual work outdoors (athough it is still raining!). Today was sightly better than yesterday but ... read more

After waiting in the bus for half an hour for a few late arrivals after the kareoke night we headed to one of the most significant archeological sites of the 20th century, the Terracotta Warriors. It was about 2 hours outside of the city and the site was amazing, the site of the warriors was found by farmers who were digging a well on day in the 80's on their land, and they came across these pieces of pottery and some warrior heads. The site has still not been fully excavated but it is thought that there are tens of thousands of these warriors still buried under the earth. The ones that have been excavated are truly remarkable and it is incredible to see them all in rows, with all different features and positions. There are ... read more

We were up and over to building 6 early to throw in some washing and speak with the main co-ordinator of the programme before our orientation. Her name is Yilera and she is incredibly tall for an Asian woman, she towers over me and has an air of authority about her and I was instantly worried that we would get nowhere negotiating our problems and issues with her. After a fruitless hour 'chat' with Yilera we hadn't resloved much at all, as there were 15 of us all trying to get our point across and it wasn't going to well. In the end we gave up and decided to talk to her individually at a later point. We had our orientaion and were given all the information we would need for our time in Xi'an and ... read more

Kung Fu day!! Today we were up again bright and early and leaving behind the city of Zhengzhou to head to the Shaolin Temple. The bus led us up the winding roads of the mountains towards the Temple and the views from this high were stunning. There was still a hint of smog this far out from the cities, however not as bad as the inner cities have been. It is also still incredibly hot and every time we leave the air con buses or rooms we are immediately dripping in sweat. We all piled out of the bus at the Temple, all very excited and eager to learn kung fu. We were lead into the Shaolin Temple grounds to be met with a host of school aged children learning all different types of Kung Fu, ... read more

So after a terrible nights sleep on the train we eventually arrived at Taishan, a smaller city around 7 hours from Beijing. We were all pretty tired, some of us having slept worse than others due to an awful snoring man in a bunk opposite, and we were all looking forward to getting off of the train and freshened up, me especially as I had not slept much at all, I was on the top bunk and felt very claustrophobic and every time the train jolted I thought we were having a train crash which kept me up and scared all night! We were taken straight to breakfast from the station by a lovely little guide called Selly who was a sweet and kind Chinese lady who was really good to us the whole day. After ... read more