Probably the nicest but most touristy place we'd been to in China was Yangshou. We were told it was a 'quiet rural village' but this is China I guess, so it was still teeming with people - especially tourists! I did lots of extra activities here to pass the time such as a painting class, a Tai Chi class, a bicycle ride, a boat ride down the beautiful river, a cormorant fishing trip (like on the HSBC ad) and a light show - which was totally fantastic!! It was all ...

Next we had a 2 night boat cruise on the Li River through the 3 Gorges, which was really pretty with big limestone karsts all around. We also went through the huge Dam through a series of 5 huge lock gates in the middle of the night, which was pretty amazing but took ages and I couldn't stay awake for all of it so didn't actually see the dam after we got through!

Xian was a lot more dirty and old than the last 2 modern cities. We hired some bicycles and cycled round the top of the old city wall, which was good fun and gave us a good impression of the city. Inside the wall was the old part and outside the wall was the new part with high rise buildings etc. We also took a trip from here to see the amazing Terracotta Warriors! This crazy Emperor spent most of his life preparing for his death by forcing thousands of men to m...

Spent another few days exploring the very cool, modern city of Shanghai with the group. Went up the tallest building, tried to visit the world expo site but too busy, looked at the amazing skyline by day and night, looked around the old town market area and went to the museum. Sampled some bars but not as good as the one we went to in Beijing and sampled lots more lovely food ordered by our guide - tried to eat one night on our own but not very successful as no E...

Arrived in Beijing and found my hotel ok - taxi had to phone them for directions. Went out in the evening in search of food and ended up at a Pekking Duck restaurant. Everything on the menu sounded gross tho - intestines, webbed feet etc - so I ordered something plain (fried rice with beef). The waitress said I couldn't have that tho and brought me a beef stew with rice which was basically just gristle and bone! Spent the next few days exploring various sites in...