Here it is our final blog for this trip…the past 460 odd days have gone by so quickly and looking back we can hardly believe how many wonderful things we have seen and experienced.We have stuck a few photo albums on today, including some from Beijing where we are now.We left you in Vaing Vieng and the day before tubeing……what an insane day, you DO just jump in a truck inner tyre, float down the rapids, get pulled into every bar you pass by someone waving a stick across the river, get drunk and meet lots of strange people doing the same thing.We might have some photo's (the persons camera got a bit wet!) which are pretty funny, including a muddy game of volleyball when the heavens opened!!!Anyway we bobbed home, bruises and all and headed off to a bar with a fire pit to warm up.Next day, nursing slight hangovers, we took a minibus to Luang Prubang our last stop in Laos and an incredibly picturesque place to spend out last couple of days.We wandered the Wats, the Mekong (again, this river is amazing) and the pretty night markets.We also visited a herbal sauna in one of the largest Wats in the city.Not sure what to expect we wandered down the muddy path alongside the Wat to a wooden 2 story building.Ushered upstairs we were both asked to lay down on a cot and had one of the best pressure point massages we have had in Asia.After a few cricks of the back it's into a batik and straight into the sauna.Met a friendly local who kept rubbing salt into Emma's exposed flesh, seemed a bit strange until Jay got a rubbing down as well obviously a local thing or a dual preference!!!!Leaving Luang Prubang on the night bus to Kunming in China we prepare ourselves for the 33 hour journey.It didn't take us 33 hours, oh no it took us 40+ including an 8 hour (no F@*&%$*#@ clue why) stop at the side of the road!Everyone else just ate (real theme here in China they seem to eat constantly when they are traveling), smoked and played cards whilst we just used our mandarin phrase book to attempt to buy water and find out what was going on!We finally arrive in Kunming and after a kind cash donation from a nice lady on the street for our bus fare we found our hostel and promptly fall asleep.Due to the recent earthquake and the increasing rains (and a little bit to do with dollars!) we decided not to head north west and instead took a 2 day 2 night train to Shanghai in time for Jason's birthday.After 48 hours of sleeping with the gods in the smallest bunks ever and traveling with 80 of the Chinese Olympic eating team we arrive in Shanghai at 5.30am on Jays birthday….so what are we gonna do????First stop the Grand Hyatt for a birthday beer (after breakfast of course!) high up in the hotel with amazing views across the city.Almost twice as many skyscrapers as New York Shanghai is an amazing, if a little polluted, sight to see.By lunch time we are in Hooters, drinking pitchers of Budweiser and buying t-shirts!Back to the hotel for a freshen-up (and a little snooze, heck were getting on) we splash out and take a taxi to Xian Tha Di (or something very similar) and spend an evening of luxury (well it is for us for nowadays!) sipping Malbec and eating delicious food.Spend the next few days (Jay was a bit poorly sick (not hung-over we promise)) eating and relaxing in and around our hotel.Back on the train again (only just, we got stuck in traffic and made it with one minute to spare!) for a very short 18 hour train journey and a whistle stop tour of Xi'an. A lovely trip around the pits of the amazing Terracotta Army (Emma did a school project when she was 11 on the TA so she was a bit over excited!).Built by the 1st Emperor Qin Shi Huang to protect him in the afterlife the Army is still in amazing condition, party thanks to a peasant's revolt shortly after his death!Back on the train that afternoon for another overnight to Beijing (we got the bottom bunk this time so total luxury, we can sit up in bed and see out of the window!).We arrived in Beijing on the 26th and are trying to work our way home, either by train of by plane.Still undecided as to what to do.We either take a plane straight home which all seems a bit final or we wangle Mongolian and Russian visas and come home on the Trans Mongolian Train and spend a couple of nights in Moscow, sameish price but the latter seems like a lot more fun and a lot less flying hours!Anyway we are keeping ourselves busy in Beijing, we have wandered around Tiananmen Square, walked the Great Wall of China but the weather was very wet and cloudy so we couldn't see much (it's summer here so were getting used to the British weather again!), tonight we a going to see a Kung Fu show and tomorrow the Forbidden Place so called because it was off limits to us ordinary folk for 500 years whilst the Emperors and their concubines had a ball.Oh, the Olympics…nearly forgot.We have been out to Olympic park which is looking great, the Bird's Nest Olympic Stadium (the Chinese's affectionate name for it) looks great but our personal favorite is the big blue bubble square building called the Water Cube which houses the swimming pool.The Olympic Village and the surrounding park's look great too.There is still a lot of work to do for example none of the new subways that will take people to the Olympic park are open (or finished!) and it seems like every available Chinese person has been drafted into the city to help.The building and development is phenomenal and we are living in a street that is actually our version of a building site.There are girls plastering, ol' boys pushing wheelbarrows (which incidentally was invented in China (little bit of trivia for you there)), people sleeping in trucks and all working around the clock but everyone seems very happy and confident that it will all be finished in time.I really hope they nail it, it's great to see the impact the Olympics is having on a developing country.There are some amazing new skyscrapers and other similar buildings (ok we have noticed that several of the buildings are completely hollow) and the flowers and landscaping across this vast city are lovely.There is defiantly a buzz in the air as China prepares to be on stage to the rest of the world.China is a really interesting country, one of the oldest civilizations the amount of history is wonderful.Even the modern history is intriguing.The one child rule/law is still in place although there are exceptions.If you have brothers and sisters you are only allowed to have one child, if you and your partner are only children then you may have two, if you live in the country and your first child is a daughter you get one more try at having a son so that he can take care of the farm and you in the future and if you are rich you can have more as long as you pay the government a fee.One thing we have learnt over the past year is that the world over if you have got the dollars you can get yourself into and out of anything!!!The food is good, apart from the fact they will eat ANYTHING so you have to watch out.We have had some great food including Peking (when in Rome) Duck which is cooked in a wood fired oven and served as you would expect with pancakes, soy sauce and cucumber but it tastes better than home!Well this is it 'The End' for now. We are really looking forward to seeing you all and catching up on your news.Thank you to those of you who have persevered and read our blog over the past months, we hope you have enjoyed it and as a thank you we herby promise that we won't make you look at our 3000 other photos!!!See you very soon Jay and Emma x x x x x x x x x x