(Written by Holly)
Hello from Shanghai! Gosh we're moving around so much it's hard to keep on track of this blog!

So the last blog we wrote finished up in Xi'an but we didn't mention the train journey from HELL! We met the rest of our group after a pretty boring last day in Xi'an at 6pm and got all our luggage together ready for our train which was to leave at 8. After making sure we had everything and buying food supplies for the 17 hour journey we went to Xi'an Train Station which was an adventure in itself! The whole place was completely hectic, there is no order or any type of crowd control there what so ever - it's a free for all! Nobody seems to know where they are going, there are queues everywhere and a lot of impatient people that think it's okay to just push past you up the queue regardless of your luggage being in the way! It made Heathrow look like a quiet airport.... we were so stressed! Plus it was really warm and stank too so that just added to the nasty experience. We eventually boarded our train and were luckily in a berth together although the entire group got split up amongst three carriages which was a shame. We have decided that train travel in China is much more fun if you are with a group and can sit in your berth together and talk and play cards to pass the time. If you are split up you have to pretty much stay in your berth because there's not much room up the carriage to stand and chat and all the other passengers tend to try and do the same too so it gets a bit messy. We found our berth (me on the bottom bunk, Matt on the middle) and sorted our luggage out ready for the journey. There's not much luggage space on the trains which is pretty frustrating especially as our backpacks are not small! (Mum & Dad - you will be happy to know that our backpacks are NOT the largest in our group, there are some much bigger than ours!).

We were sharing our berth with some local people who stared, open mouthed at us throughout the trip. We've kind of got used to it and just ignore it, but when you're sitting on your bed in your own private area it feels pretty intrusive. At least they weren't taking photos! Lights had to go out at 10pm and after that there really isn't anything to do except try to get some sleep! We got all comfy and snuggled up in our beds with eye masks on (essential) and ear plugs in (essential but still unfortunately the pink ones that don't block out sound... sorry Vicks!!) and then, as usual, the snoring began. This time, we had TWO snorers in our berth and they were snoring alternately. It was just so annoying, once the sound is in your ears you can not sleep, it's impossible. I put my Ipod in to try and drown out the sound but unfortunately this meant the Ipod needed to be at maximum volume preventing me from getting any sleep. But the music was better than the snoring! Between us, we probably slept about 2 hours through the whole night and were pretty crabby in the morning. Oh well... that's train travel in China! We are really dreading the 23 hour train journey that we have to endure on Friday afternoon which takes us to the next place on our trip, Yangshuo.

Anyway, to continue the blog... we are now in Shanghai. We arrived at about 11.30am to beautiful weather and 20 degrees!! YAYYYY!! It's been so cold so far on the trip, we were so happy to actually feel the sun on our skin and not have to wear a coat and gloves!! We took taxis from the Train Station to our hotel which is again, really nice, and took an hours 'shower time' (Our tour guide, Lillyan is so cute. She always calls it shower time!) before going up the road from our hotel to get famous 'Shanghai Hot Pot'. We seem to be staying in Shanghai's answer to the Red Light District - there are brothels up and down the street and girls hanging out of the doors calling to the guys from our group. I have been keeping a tight hold on Matt!!

The Hot Pot was amazing! We went to a completely unremarkable restaurant that we wouldn't have dreamed of going to unless we were with Lillyan. Hot Pot is a great tradition here. You get a little hot plate thing on which a pot is placed containing a sort of broth thing that they keep topping up with hot water. Then, it's a bit like fondue - you get plates of different things that you put in to the hot pot to cook them and then you eat straight from the pot! Matt had chicken with some of the others but I stuck to the veggie option and had noodels, bok choi, potato, spinach and all sorts of other lovely things. They cook up nicely in the pot and then you take them out and eat them with rice - amazing!! We really enjoyed that for lunch and left the restaurant with lovely full tummies.

After that we had a brief orientation walk of Shanghai. Our hotel is quite far away from even a tube station so we had to walk quite far to find it and to also find this internet cafe where we are now sitting. We had to cross 'The Bund' which is the very famous river in Shanghai and got some nice photos of us in front of it. So far, we really like Shanghai. It is a huge city, apparently one of the largest in Asia and has an amazing skyline with skyscrapers and other interesting buildings to look at. We only really have a day and a half here so we want to try and make the most of it before we leave.

We are very excited about tonight - we are going to see the Shanghai Acrobats! We are expecting it to be a little like Cirque du Soleil but we're not too sure. Will let you know tomorrow. We only paid ten pounds each which is pretty good and apparently when the show ends we'll have a nice walk along the river to get back to the hotel. We're really enjoying doing things as a group, there's some really nice people that we get along with and everyone's got a story to tell. There's never a dull moment and as there's 16 of us you have a chance of talking to lots of different people each day rather than just each other. However, tomorrow we will probably spend the day together as we haven't really had much time on our own and it's nice to leave the group occasionally. We are on the hunt to find some more summery clothes becuase the next stop on Saturday is Yangshuo and we have been told that it's going to be 30 degrees! So we'll be getting rid of the fleeces and the thermal socks and trying to find some cool clothes that will have to last us for the rest of the trip!

We must go now because the smoke inhalation in this place is horrific. Everyone sits in the internet cafes and just chain smokes the entire time. It's so annoying because we only have a few changes of clothes, and just 10 minutes here can really make your clothes stink! We will write again soon, lots of love to everyone back home xxxxx miss you xxxx