hello all, Our last stop in China was the capital Beijing. We stayed in the old hutongs area just north of the city centre. The hutongs are traditional style residential streets, some of them now converted to boutique and tourist shops. We took an off the beaten track hike to the great wall. We found our way to the un-renovated Jiankou section. To get there we had to bargain a ride from some touts who dropped us off in a car park in a quiet little village. they...

Seasons Greetings from Shanghai, We did a whistle stop tour of the city as our planned four days here were reduced to two as Liz fell ill with a stomach bug and spent some time recovering. She's all better now :) We strolled along the famous Bund on the river. The Bund is a stretch of European and American style buildings from the early 1900's, the remnants of the early international trade port. Across the river from the Bund is Shanghai's modern skyline. We a...

Hello again, We have spent the last four days in Xi'an and we have really enjoyed it here, there has been lots to see and do. The afternoon of the day we arrived we visited the bell and drum tower, monumnets left over from the old city. The next day we walked around the old city walls that enclose the central city. The walls are a renovation of the originals that date back to the Qing Dynasty. They were very impressive and offered a different perspective on the...

Hello, Yesterday we visted the panda breeding research base in Chengdu. we got the chance to see giant pandas up close as well as the equally endangered red panda. We got to see pandas of all ages including three month old baby ones (Liz is still brooding over them)! We had a guide who walked us round and told us of the difficulties of panda breeding. We also watched a short movie on artificial insemination including a bit of panda porn! The pandas were adorable...

Hello all, We have just stepped off our Chinese cruise ship after taking a 3 day trip along the Yangzi River, through the Three Gorges. We got our tickets last minute from a taxi driver who called himself Jack (at least we think he was a taxi driver!). After waiting half an hour in a back street hotel we wondered if there was any cruise at all. It all came good when we were bundled onto a bus with a load of Chinese holiday makers to watch an acrobatic show about...