Day 16-18, Lonji Rice TerracesOur trip to the Rice Terraces was a bit crazy as we boarded a very old rickety bus and headed up a very steep hill, meeting some very bizzare road works on the way!! We eventually made it to our starting point, a village in the middle of know-where!! Our guide Sam then told us we could get to our Guesthouse by one of two routes, first the easy one which takes about 20 mins and the second a 45 min trek! Being crazy as we are, we all o...

Day 13-15, Yangshuo Being xmas eve eve whilst on the train (and with the prospect of a long 26 hour train journey) we decided to have a little fun and have a xmas eve eve party in the carriage! Armed with plenty of beer (35 pence a bottle!) and our santa hats we broke out the mp3 players with xmas songs on them and began our own version of midnight mass (much to the dislike of the rest of the carriage!)! Having successfully persuaded the train nazi (long story!...

Day 9-12, Shanghai After another long over night train ride (17 hours!), this time sleeping on the top - 3 bunks up!, we arrived in Shanghai at lunch time. The first afternoon was free after an orientation of the city, however as it was late in the day we headed for ice-cream at Mr Gelate! We then wandered back to our hotel to get ready for our first meal in Shanghai. The city is crazy, there are 17.4 million people that live in Shanghai! There isn't as much cul...

Day 6-8, Xi'an We arrived in Xi'an at 7 o'clock on monday morning having just spent 14 hours on a 'hard-sleeper' train from Beijing. And 'hard-sleeper' it was!! Each carriage was divided into about 15 compartments, with each compartment containing 6 beds (the lowest bed on the floor and the highest in the roof!). The compartments were all open (no doors!) and shared 2 toilets, but as there was 16 of us it was really good fun and we had brought plenty of beer to ...

Day 4-5 The Great Wall of China Ni Hao! Dave, aka the beard, here! Saturday began with an early bus ride (6am!) to the Great Wall. After arriving at one of the basecamps (and walking through snow!) we began our ascent of the wall. 'Out of this World' is the only way to describe our walk along the wall that day. Despite the below freezing temperatures, the sun was out and the views were incredible. And they just kept getting better the higher we went! It was a p...