Ni Hao Thankfully our air conditioning last night had a heater mode and meant we only came within a whisker of catching pneumonia!!! The alarm sounded this morning while it was still dark outside and we jumped out onto the concrete floor and quickly dressed before bits started dropping off us. It was a short 10km drive to the research and conservation centre in Chengdu to see the pandas, we arrived a little before 8.30am and had the place to ourselves for at l...

Ni Hao We arrived at the train station in Guilin expecting to be ushered into a warm waiting room with big leather chairs just like in Guangzhou but no such luck we were sent to the main waiting room and placed on cold metal chairs in a waiting room with no lights and no heating, the place was absoloutley freezing cold and we had a 1 hor wait for our train. About 15 minutes before we boarded we were joined by a nice Chinese lady wanting to practice her English a...

Ni Hao Last night we had another great chinese meal and we decided to try Beijing duck, to show you what you are eating is fresh they include the head on the plate so our duck was all sliced up and on the edge of the plate was the head!!!! Today was another 7am start and we had noodles for breakfast again as they are so filling.The wind was stronger today and it made the day even colder, Mel had to wear her Long Johns!!!! David our guide (chinese people adopt ...

Ni Hao Up at 7am and straight out for breakfast at the local noodle bar, they are really filling but the ladies in there kept laughing at us as we were the only western people in there and she gave us a little help mixing up the noodles before we ate them, the funny thing is I would never have thought that noodles for breakfast would be appetising but they were delicious. We seem to have got right back on track and are filling our days to the max, just how we ...

Ni Hao The train station last night was a great experience and provided us with 2 hours entertainment because as usual we were early!!!! We spent 2 hours trying to decipher Chinese writing and which train was ours and the platform we needed to catch it from. It turns out that we needn't have bothered as a lady with a large megaphone sorted us out with a swift "HELLO YOU, NUMBER 3" and at that moment we left our comfy leather chairs behind and joined the masses ...