I arrived in Beijing after a 13 hour sleeper train journey, I immediately checked my self intoa hostel and got washed before heading to Beijing zoo. It was my last day in China and I couldn't leave the country without seeing the Panda's.Once I got to Beijing zoo the sun was baking, the pollution haze over the city had actually improved since I was last in the city (nearly two weeks ago) probably helped by new regulations brought in by the government prior to the...

Shanghai is a buzzing city we arrivd on 9th July, it seemed you couldn't walk further then about two feet out of the hotel without somebody trying to pull you into a restaurant or sell you a watch, bag, DVD or basically anything else you can think of, it became really frustrating at times as the people would walk straight in front of you and try to stop you walking past. There were just two days of the Intrepid 'taste of China' tour left and the last activites w...

Suzhou is known as the venice of China with all it's canals, it's much smaller then our previous destinations (Xi'An and Beijing) and prior to booking the trip with Intrepid I hadn't heard of this city! I wasn't at all dissapointed with this destination it was very pretty with the only exception being that it was extremely dificult to get taxis in Suzhou, it was so bad that it kind of reminded me of being in Croydon or Dublin where taxis are few and far between....

Once we arrived in Xi'An following our new experience of a Chinese sleeper train we went straight to see the Terracotta Warriors, these dudes are over 2000 years old and are in amazing condition considering their age! It's pretty overwhelming seeing them in the flesh the pictures just don't do it justice. Following our visit to the warriors we were able to check into our hotel and then wonder around Xi'An, compared to Beijing Xi'An is so easy to find your way ar...

When Mum and I arrived in Beijing airport on 1st July it was 8am, and by the time we had got through customs the problems were just about to start as our transfer car had not arrived to take us to our accommodation A couple of phone calls and two hours later our driver eventually showed up!A further 50 minutes later and we were at the hotel but it was a further 40 minutes before we had checked in as the hotel had no record of our booking. I hadn't slept much on ...