10/07/07:- We get up and use our limited time left before the dreaded train journey to mosey around the town of Guangzhou. We are welcomed by people pushing in...alot, and generally being rude and unhelpful. The heat feels on par with India. We walk down by the pearl river, there is not a great deal to see or do in the town. We go to the post office and send some bits home to free uo some space in our bags, which with a bit of luck should get there by the time we get home!

We try to find a local cinema and a portable DVD player, which turns into getting mis-led by Chinese men selling rip offs in the back of someone house!

We cram onto what looks like the whole of China on the train (we thought India trains were bad!) It's all a/c which is lovely but people are sleeping in sinks and toliets and on the floors. We sit opposite a family who are pushy, unshaven and are running with what we believe to be pubic lice! The woman has a look of sloth (Goonies) about her as she tilts her head and shows about 5 teeth! Her husband is drinking from a flask with what looks like to contain a frog, then the pack of gorillas tuck into a nest of fried baby birds (a Chinese delicacy). I want to expel my stomach contents onto her head!

11/07/07:- We arrive at seven in the morining after a night of trying to sleep upright. We walk to the nearest hotel with wooly heads. The monsoon weather has followed us from India and it starts to downpour. We get to the hotel looking like drowned sewer rats to discover a wonderful room with the softest duvet and and bed, big power head shower and spotless, we have appeared to reach the Chinese Hilton!

We are at the hotel at 8am and snooze til 14:00pm. We head out to try and find a mode of transport to Shanghai, it seems that every available ticket out of this town is booked and the overnight bus is the only glimsp of hope we find. After finding some lunch in a restaurant where the fish kept in tanks has flipped out and attempted suicide in front of me!)

We head through the crowds to Ren Min square, and after another McDonalds I vow to give myself a colonic after this year and start a detox system!

12/07/07:- Up and out we set upon our adventure to find tickets by any mode and means necessary out of here. We get hassled by some Chinese men, who offer us tickets in an overnight bus to Shanghai, we gladly accept.

We hop into a car with the promise of Shanghai at the destination. The driver speeds through the traffic for about half an hour and we wonder is he driving us all the way or just going to dump us out in the middle of nowhere, rape us or all of the above!

We eventually arrive at the pick up point and there are two shops which the staff appear to be on the suicide watch programme.! The attitude that we recieve is awful. Shop no.2 is our saviour and we buy crappy pot noodle, we take our highly nutrious snack and sit on the side of the road before boarding the bus. After a sniff of our food we are odered on the bus in the oh so polite Chinese manor. They refuse to tell us where the toliet is so we board with full bladders for an overnight 12hours....what joy!

13/07/07:- We arrive at Shanghai at 05:30am (a little cooler!) and head to find a bed. Poor Dave trecks up and down the main roads as I stay with the bags, we spend 3.5hrs looking until find somewhere. We bed down at 08:30am for our usual sleep deprived nap with a very rude awakening by a witch in desperate need of prosac overdose. She trys to break down the door and rants and raves claiming the 100 Yuan we gave was for a stay of 4hours and our time is up we must now leave. We wonder what sort of hotel rents rooms for four hours....oh my god we are staying in a w**** house! After Dave threatens to call the police the woman gives in to let us stay for more money.

There are some pretty cool buildings with fancy lights to see. The Pearl Tower is quite amazing. We stroll a long the board walk and meet a nice guy also called David, who lives in Shanghai for the past 2 years. We walk and chat for a while before heading back and watching a movie on our newly purchased DVD player.

13/07/07:- After we leave the Grand High Witches tower we head to another hotel that we find late last night for a lower price just up the road. However, we forget to check the outside bathroom and toliet or should I say 2 in 1. The shower is inches away from the "squatter" toliet which was backed up and splattered matter up the walls with a punjunt oder that lingered with a damp must (I have never showered so quickly in all my life).

We visit the Shanghai Art Muesum, while leaving the muesum we are approached by "students" who invite us to share the magic with them at the Shanghai tea festival, nice guys we said maybe later. We later found another 2 groups that invited us. This we find out is a complete scam trying to lur us into spending money....how very dare they! We try to find a launderama to wash our clothes as they are now walking with us!

14/07/07:- Today we go to the Tourist Tunnel over the river. It's a shuttle like ride with many many strobe lights and rope fairy lights in a brilliant display. We then step out and buy a ticket for the Oriental Pearl Tower, 3rd tallest tower in the world. We head up to the observatory level on the 367th floor and as my ears pop and I change my pants we step out on the level and take some snaps.

We then catch an outside concert with two Phillipino girls who I think where hired by a visa card for the evenings entertainment. They sang a few songs and some some young girls perform some amazingly difficult rountines on rollerskates. We are then collered by a crowd of people selling their tack and crap. One piece Dave takes an interest in and when under closer inpsection finds it's poorly put together he says that he is no longer interested. The sales woman doesn't give up and follows us trying to push the item. After being repeatedly told no she gets annoyed and the shrew decides to spit at us! After a good two attempts back in her direction we head off disgusted with the Chinese public. We take the return journey back on the tourist tunnel and hit the hay.

15/07/07:- We spent the morning at a hostel doing our laundry....finally, and being bum raped for the astronomical fee of using the internet for our blogs.

Today we found a glorious all you can eat buffet where we spend the best part of three hours eating and drinking all the food and drink (tiger beer) we could fit in our gullets! We roll out and waddle through the streets in an attempt to burn off soem of the consumed calories.

After a fair few beers we giggle home, when another bag, watch and shoes man tries to fleece us. We take him up on his offer as we are interested in the shoes. We eventually after being led around the "backside" end up and blackened door way reach a hidden shoe shop where we spot a nice pair of fake, gay cat posed, puma shoes. When eventually haggling down to a realistic fee, Dave tries to closer inspect the shoe quality, the wench snatches her shoes back thinking we are not interested, so we leave. We are finding that the Chinese have a very hostile aggressive behaviour. We head home and allow our stomach to attempt to digest our food.

16/07/ 7:- This morning we head out to the town for our last day in Shanghai. We have home made fruit museli...mmm. It's very hot so we spend time in and out of the a/c buildings. We then head to the airport to go on the "Maglev" train which is only 15 mins ride but hits a speed of 430km/hr...it's amazing as it hovers held up by magnetism!

Its then time to collect our bags and our laundry drying in the pooey shower room at the hotel, before getting on the overnight train to Jinan, only 9 hours and on a hard sleeper its about the most comfortable train ride we have had.

17/07/07:- We arrive at gone 7am and decide to straight away borad another bus journey to Beijing to try and speed up time and save in the funds!