Hello everyone, Just to let you know that i'm all better now after my little hospital visit, the lump on the side of my face has gone down after taking 15 pills a day for 4 days and not touching a drop of alcohol for a week! now i'm making a come back!! I have just visited Shaolin Si in the Henan provence to check out where the shaolin martial arts were developed by buddist monks. It was great! the place was so scenic, surrounded by mountains and away from the noise of the city. We watched a little performance by the shaolin monks which was fantastic, some swinging swords others swinging poles around and one monk even pole-volted across the stage (check out the photos). Also inside Shaolin Si was a pagoda forest which has over 260 pagoda's in it each one has the remaines of a monk in it. And then there was the school, this was something to see! Boys from the age of 5 to about 25 training in huge groups, some just learning the moves others kicking the hell out of punch bags or each other. The next day tony angus and myself decided to go trekking up the mountains outside our hotel, this envolved waking up early after watching the champions league in the early hours of the morning, it was never going to happen! So when we did all eventually get out of our pits it was about 12 o'clock, just in time for the mid-day heat walking up mountains, not our best idea! But once we got to the top of the mountain it was fantastic! The views across Shaolin and across the the mountains was amazing. We walked right around the top of a load of mountains for a few hours and then it was time to come down, easier said than done! Very steep, very slippery faces to get down only to be faced with another mountain to climb up and go down the other side to get to our hotel. Great fun! I'm now in a little place called Pingyao, only just got here after a 14 hour over night bus ride so i'm hanging now and it's time to hit the hay. Speak to you all soon. Christopher