Hi guys, Well Im in Nanjing at the mo. Didnt have a great welcome to the city as we arrived here at 2am yesterday! Yuck! Our overzealous tour guide was also not welcomed! He actually asked Kalas we were all getting off the train if we'd like a group photo! Kal was not impressed! Then after the 4 mile (well felt like) treck to the coach (loads of building work going on at the station and bag VERY heavy) we were just rrelaxing in our seats when he gets up and asks whether we know any Chinese words, with the lack of response he then decides he'll spend the next 15 mins teaching us some (remember te time now!) after 19 pissed off/despairing faces staring back at him he got the message and sat back down. Its not harsh! Hes very annoying, even through the day. Anyhoo...yesterday we had a wonderful lie in! What bliss! The Chris and I went through chores like going to the bank and laundry. In the afternoon we went to Fuzzy Miao (I think thats the spelling!) which has loads of markets stalls and is by the river. So after picking up some very very cheap DVDs and a Chinese fan each we went on a short pedalo ride down the river, and on a dragon boat at that! In the evening we went to a fish food restaurant, hmmm not much choice there for me or Steve (who hates seafood) I did have some of the fish (the one plte of it) but couldnt manage the prawns. After dinner we all aimlessly wondered around looking for a bar. We found ourselves on a back alley with well ... a lot of pricarious looking girls in shop windows. So we decided wed better get back as even if we did find a bar around there I dont think its what wed had in mind. Chris, Susannah, Vivian and I picked up some chocolate Viennetta on the way back and had a mini feast back in their hotel room. bliss. Today, we were proper tourists again, and did actually do a few things! This morning we went to the museum commemorating the 'Nanjing Massacre' in 1937 by the Japanese. (For those of you keeping up with the news this is one of the things China is so angry with Japan about now, with the whole textbooks fiasco. Basically the Japanese have never really apologised for the attrocities-even though they were on the same scale and horror as the Holocaust-across China. And they even play it down, denying half of it had even happened. Now they have brought out textbooks wit even less of a mention/none of the war crimes they commited.) So yes, a very sobering experience. The museum was very welldone, very respectful, informative and well, shocking. You wonder through and can see why theres still a lot of animosity against the Japanese today, especially when they bring school groups around a lot. Back to happier things...after the museum we went on a bike ride to Dr Sun Yat Sens Musolaum. He ruled China for a year after the something Dynasty (last one, maybe Ming)was overthrown. The actual building wasnt all that good, but was on a hill and from there the views were great. Beautiful. Along with the massive grounds of the park was also views of the city beyond. The bike ride theer was really hard. Was so humid today and along with riding up hills on bikes with no gears it was all a bit much! We all arrived drenched in sweat. Nice. But the ride back was glorious. We hadnt actually realised what a steep hill wed been riding up, (I just damned myself for being so unfit!) but we were speeding down coming back. Was so nice. Anyhoo. Thats a lot Ive said for 2 days. We're off to Hangzhou tomorrow, 6 hrs on a soft sleeper train through the morning. To fill you in, Hongzhou is a very beautiful city, very popular with honeymoon ouples as theres loads of greenery and lakes. After that its Shanghai. G x