Yesterday, Ros joined us in Chengdu to visit the Giant Panda Breeding Station. A beautiful sunny day, the grounds were full of flowers like antirrhinum which we wouldn't expect to see until June in England, and huge stands of bamboo 20ft plus arching across the paths. The wild panda population is about 2000, and there are 80 odd at this, the main captive panda breeding station. Truckloads of mountain bamboo stems and shoots are cut each day to feed the animals, ...

The Conisbee weather jinx caught up with us today, and it rained in time for our cycle ride around the city wall. The city wall is 14 Km long, a perfect rectangle with 68 watch towers and 4 original gates. It has a couple of extra gates since the 1950s and has been rebuilt as often as Trigger's broom. Outside the city wall are many tall apartment blocks, but inside there are no buildings higher than 3 storeys. Again, most are not older than 40 years as they have...

The Terracotta Army visitor centre is an hour's drive out of the city along a wide tree lined motorway. Tony, our guide, explained that the regional government in Xian realises that the environment is important, so factories have been moved out of the centre and the air quality here is better than in Beijing. We saw huge building sites, apartments being built. The pits containing the warriors are huge, photos and TV don't convey the size. We bought the book, whi...

We flew out of the Beijing smog into Xian fog. Not nearly so thick, and not making us wheeze. Our guide here is Tony, and our hotel is smack bang in the centre of the old walled city, with fantastic service and we've been upgraded to a suite, which is very posh. We have a sofa, a chaise, an office chair and desk, an easy chair...have to keep moving round! We found the street market, complete with cauldrons set in tables so diners can cook their own food. We saw ...

Today the smog in Beijing was so thick we could taste it, so we wore masks. All the cars are covered in a layer of golden brown dust. We went to the Ming tombs this morning, via the Jade factory, a state-run outlet which tourists are obliged to visit. It was fascinating to see jade generation balls being hand carved and learn a little about the different types of jade. At the tombs, 40 Km north of the city, the smog was still thick. There are 13 tombs spread o...