We are currently sitting within an internet cafe in Xi'an and have now been in China for four days.

We were in Beijing for the past three days before a 12 hour night train during which we hardly slept.

In Beijing we saw all the main sites which were largely as impressive as we were expecting. However the site of a Starbucks within the Forbidden City was certainly a shock as was the inclusion of a tobogan ride to help get down the Great Wall (admittedly this was awesome). We have taken loads of pics and will add some to the photos page.

Today we had a great time cycling the city walls (about 14km) but got sun burnt. The group we are with are very nice and we have already arranged to see three of them in other areas of the world later in the trip.

Sorry this is so brief but we have limited time and the cafe stinks of smoke!!! We hope to write again before leaving Shanghai but if not will write far more details once we are in OZ.

Hope everyone is well.

Rob and Jen