First thing this morning was a visit to a library which housed genealogical records. We were ushered into a big room and shown a video, but I didn't understand anything that was discussed so that's about all I can say. We did watch a lady doing some restoration work. We then visited the site of the First National Congress of The Communist Party which is in Xin Tian Di. Quite an interesting place if you want to learn more about the beginnings of the Communist party as some of the captions are in English. http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/shanghai/site-of-first-national-congress.htm We then went for a wander in the area which has been set up as a very trendy cosmopolitan tourist area. There certainly were a lot of westerners enjoying themselves in the cafes and... read more

Flying out of Xi'an today but not before a visit to the Shaanxi History Museum. I didn't have a personal guide in Xi'an because the local guide, Bryan spoke English, but I found that I never really knew what was coming up next, so when we got to the museum I had no idea what it was but it proved to be a very interesting museum. http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/shaanxi/xian/provincial_museum/ I found many of the artefacts interesting and the clay pottery models were different to anything else I had seen before, so once again, well worth a visit. Then a very nicely presented lunch in one of Xi'an's better hotels before flying out to Shanghai. Got to Shanghai around 5.30pm where I was again introduced to another personal guide. Her name is Jane and spoke excellent English. ... read more

Last morning in Beijing and we flew to Xi'an, home of the famous Entombed Warriors or Terracotta Warriors. This was another major attraction I was looking forward to seeing. After touching down we of course had to have another gigantic lunch. After that we were taken to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. We didn't get a chance to climb it but had some time to wander around the grounds which featured many different types of buddha statues. http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/shaanxi/xian/bigwildgoose.htm From there driving to our hotel (The Howard Johnson Ginwa Hotel) I was surprised at how modern Xi'an is, I figured that all the tourist dollars coming into the city had contributed to this growth. The charming thing about Xi'an is that the original old city wall is still intact and is beau... read more

Early start, no breakfast as the medical check-up will include a blood test. When I say a full medical I mean it. I think we went through every test imaginable. Turns out they think I have some gall stones which they picked up on the ultrasound. Not many of the staff spoke English but a couple of the doctors could. The ear specialist spoke excellent English and when I told him my hearing was bad he said that physically they were OK. After the tests we were given breakfast in the dining room and some ladies came up in white coats. Turns out they are herbal specialists, and everyone was prescribed some herbal medicine before we left after some very long chats. It was actually a bit boring for me because I couldn't understand what everyone ... read more

Into Hong Kong airport very early in the morning with plenty of time to get our connecting flight on Dragon Air to Beijing. Long wait at the security gate and they're quite strict on the new rules about restricting liquids to 100ml bottles, but I was allowed my bottle of Saline solution. Had a bit of a snooze on the 3.5 hour flight to Beijing and it went quick. It was with some excitement when we emerged from customs and a group of people were there to greet us holding up Dad's name in Chinese. Of course, I had no idea. The group included Zhou Li who is Deputy Director of the Office of Overseas Chinese Affairs of the State Council of P.R.C and China Overseas Exchange Association. They certainly don't believe in abbreviating Department names. ... read more