And so we reach the final leg of the journey: China.From Hong Kong we travelled across the south to rural Yunnan province in the SW, then flew to Beijing, back to western China and now we are in Tibet for our final 2 weeks.

China has been a country of contradictions.There are huge ever expanding cities with ultra modern clean shopping areas where McD and Starbucks rule; yet down the road will be people selling fish on the floor under a motorway flyover!Rural life is also very different - many people have a very basic way of life, living off the rice paddies and still wearing traditional minority dress.The men in these areas seem to just sit around, whilst elderly women walk past with huge loads of their backs!

There are lots of things we've had to get used to in China, here's a quick list of a few of them:

- Spitting!This is an integral part of the culture, there are even spit bins on buses.It seems the louder the hack, the better!

- Toilets.We've no idea why Western toilets haven't taken off here (the footprints on the toilets seats hint that squatting rules no matter what).Public toilets are the worst and the ladies essentially consist of a long continuous trough, with no doors… delightful!

- The language.We are now totally used to not understanding anything that is written, to the extent that we often have no idea if something is a sign, directions, advertising, a name or graffiti!Train stations have been the most interesting as finding someone who speaks English is a rarity.Thank goodness the numbers are written the same.

- Chinese tour groups.All of the major sites are filled with Chinese tour groups, in fact we're often the only white faces all day.We've had to learn to tolerate the endless streams of tour flags, matching hats and umbrellas that descend on sites every afternoon.Many seem to be quite intrigued by us and we often find ourselves the star of their photos.

- Cleaning of buses.They stop the bus to clean it mid journey!Once we'd been on the bus for 7hours and were only about 30mins from our destination.This apparently was the best time to stop for 45mins to give the bus a clean… it was dirty by the time we arrived!

- The people.Some young people, especially students who speak a little English have been really helpful, without them we'd have ended up in the wrong place many a time.Yet many people, especially the elderly just blank us when we say hello in Chinese.

- Ballroom dancing in public!The parks in China are used to the max with people out on skateboards, playing cards, tai chi, singing, playing badminton etc etc.The most entertaining for us has been the public ballroom dancing.Someone will bring along a loudspeaker then a whole mixture of people ballroom dance to whatever music comes on from tango to techno!

- The food.Dog, cat, worm, honeybee… you name it, they've got it!

Now, just the wilds of Tibet and Mount Everest to come…