Once again had problems getting a non-smoking room at our hotel, everyone seems to smoke here and they don't understand the concept of a non-smoking. Shanghai is another vast city, with buildings as far as the eye can see, however, it is a lot less westernised and modern than anticipated, which is a good thing. The city is a mix of old and new but definitely still has a Chinese feel. On Monday we took a trip a couple of hours away from Shanghai to a traditio...

Friday we got treated to a western banquet, steak and chips which was a welcome relief from sticky rice! Saturday we headed to see the terracotta warriers. First we stopped off at the city wall, then stopping at a factory shop who make the figures, of course I wanted to buy several full size ones but they were too expensive. Then to the museum to see the soldiers. As we arrived we got to see the man who discovered the soldiers in 1974, although we weren't allow...

Thursday we went to a section of the great wall of china. Once again it was packed full of tourists but it didnt spoil the experience, it felt surreal to be there. We werent expecting the walk along the wall to be such hard work, it literally went up the side of the hill in front of us, hundreds of steps. As we made our way up we would come to several lookout towers. As we stopped here for a rest you could look back down and see how far you had climbed. Luckily t...

Wow beijing is amazing, we seemed to have seen so much these last few days. Pleased to report it still has a lot of chinese charm: people on bicycles, old men sat in streets, red flags, grand buildings and millions of people all who are very friendly and say hello to us. On wednesday we started our tour with our personal guide Coco, at the centre of Beijing, Tiananmen Square. The place is huge and was packed full of people, taking photos, waving flags and flyi...

Our time in japan has been steadily improving. On Thursday we went to Kiyomizu temple in kyoto, which was in a hillside setting surrounded by trees. The entrance had several brightly coloured pagodas which lead to the main temple. Inside there were 2 love stones 10m apart, saying goes if you can walk from one to the other with your eyes shut your love wish will be granted. Obviously I had to have a go however it was harder than i thought with the noise of all the...