Shanghai is a mixed up, crazy kind of place. It's like it's at a crossroads in its development. In Pudong (new Shanghai)you have the high rise business buildings, huge new roads, big new houses and smart new entertainment complexes then over the river in Puxi (Old Shanghai) you have a complete mixture of old and new. Shanghai is hosting Expo 2012 so it's undergoing some serious redevelopment and restoration at the moment. The Bund could be nice but as well as th...

Whoah, arriving in Xi'an was a bit of a shock. The temperature had dropped by about 10 degrees and it was raining. David looked great shivering in his flip flops and shorts!!! We were met at the airport by a lady called Rosa who helped us sort out a taxi to the YH and train to Shanghai. David was beside himself with tiredness (and of course the cold) and refused point blank to endure another night on a train on a hard seat. Fortunately we did manage to book a so...

Well there was carnage after our last blog entry. We popped along to our favourite hotspot Sakura for a bite to eat and discovered a bit of a party going on. We were invited to join a table of Brits, Germans and Australians and before you knew it we were all a bit worse for wear (all helped along by a Mexican guitar player creating a great party atmosphere). Don't know what time we headed home but we didn't emerge the next day until lunchtime! As we were in Bei...

We were up at 5am this morning for a 3 hour drive to Mongolia (no less!) to join the Great Wall at Jinshanling for a 10km walk to Simatai. We were joined on the trip by a guy called Thorston from Germany who is working in China for 6 months. The guide was hilarious - she couldn't speak a word of English, she kept taking short cuts and lagged behind us most of the way - completely pointless!! The walk took 4 - 5 hours, visibility was great and the views were st...

Our first encounter with China was Beijing airport which was impressive to say the least - new, shiny and big!!! We took a taxi to the youth hostel and drove along a new motorway which even had flower baskets on the verges - not your typical M62! It took an age to circle Beijing - it is a vast city - but eventually after a rather hairy drive through the city dodging cars, bikes and buses we rather worryingly took a left turn into what can only be described as ...