Home to the Terracotta Warriors.....and smog levels that equal (or quite possibly beat) those in Beijing! Anyway, as for said Warriors, they were good but slightly overrated (I've probably seen hundreds of photos of them anyway) and as with most of the places we've been to, you have to put up with coach-loads of Chinese tourists barging their way in front of you! The trip was also the first (and possibly last) time we were able to 'scam' the Chinese......we wer...

It looks like the bad weather/pollution has followed us here. Arrived here by soft-sleeper train (only took 17 hours) as we felt guilty for flying everywhere (I hate to think how big my carbon footprint is)!Chengdu, like every other city we've been to in China, has loads of brand new high-rise buildings (with loads more being built). However, it still manages to feel fairly relaxed, especially if you go to places like the People's Park (where you can watch with...

Wow, what a difference from Japan! Gone is the orderly, organised country that we've grown to love.....hello to noise, dirt, chaos and endless street-sellers saying "you want watch? You want DVD? How about t-shirt?"!It's also goodbye to women in short skirts/shorts and knee-length boots!! Still, the Chinese women aren't bad-looking, but they're certainly not as well-dressed as the Japanese (who all look as though they're about to step out on a catwalk)....

Temples temples temples temples temples.....deep breath.....temples temples temples!Nuff said!

Well, we safely made it to Fukuoka, after an 11 hour flight to Tokyo, a 7 hour train journey (and lots of pulling strange faces while we try and figure out where the hell we're going)!Thank God for our friends, John and Carley....without their guidance, we wouldn't have a clue what to eat or how to navigate the underground! (We also wouldn't have had several evenings of excessive drinking, but that's another story).Today was our first adventure into Fukuoka on o...