Mainland China has been quite a culture shock so far.

For a start, the Chinese do not know how to queue. They have to be the first everywhere so they push their way to the front and run. They also love to spit and hack it up a lot. Despite their lack of manners, Chinese people are very friendly and are keen to interact with us even though they don't know a word of English.

And we feel like celebrities! You really don't see many western people around mainland China, especially so tall and with fair hair, so they're very curious about us. When we are sitting in a group somewhere such as at the train station, you get Chinese people coming to stand within a few feet of the group and just staring at us to see what we're doing. They're also very keen to have photos with us. More times than we can count people have come up to us and asked us (using charades) to have a photo with them. And once you've had photo with one person, they all think it's okay and before you know it you've had about 10 pictures with different people on lots of different cameras! You can't even walk to the toilet without being stopped at least a few times being asked for a photo. We might start charging - we think 3 yuan is reasonable per photo.

So our overnight train journey involved stopping at a few stations until we got on our 11 hour train to Yichang. The overnight train was quite luxurious in comparison to our 3rd class sleeper train in Thailand. It had air con and each carriage was split into sections of 6 beds - bottom, middle and top on the left and the same on the right. We boarded the train at 8pm and it was lights out at 10pm for sleep, so the journey went really quickly. We learnt a new card game called Crazy Eights from the Canadians in our group which was good fun.

Once we arrived at our hotel in Yichang, the group headed out for lunch. We went to a Chinese hotpot place where dishes of raw food went round on a conveyer belt and you grabbed what you wanted and cooked it in your little hotpot in front of you. Steph played it fairly safe but Max was a bit more adventurous trying chicken feet, ducks blood, octopus, squid and a few other delicacies that we were unsure of. Beer was included so for 39 yuan (about £4) it wasn't too bad going.

A quick nap in the hotel and a few beers later we were all ready to go out for a good night. We stepped outside the hotel and across the road was a Chinese exercise class in full flow. Out in the open a few hundred people were walking in lines performing certain moves to the music. It was incredibly synchronised and according to Tori, they're there everyday. Half of our group fancied joining in and before Steph knew it, she was watching Max and others join in the lines and pick up the moves pretty quickly. It was so funny (maybe you had to be there). After the excitement of the exercise class we continued onto our night out. However, on the way we had a bit of a life changing experience. Where else to get stuck in a lift but China! The 18 of us and Tori bundled into the lift which moved swiftly upwards. The maximum amount of people was meant to be 13 so as it slowed before the 4th floor, it came to a standstill. Fortunately, it stopped by the 3rd floor which was actually out of use. The doors opened to a barricade of chairs and it was pitch black. We were the last to get into the lift and after about 10 minutes of waiting, we decided to see what was behind the chairs. It appeared to just be an abandoned floor in the mall so we pushed the chairs through and four of us got out the lift. Sure enough, with our weight removed the lift went up to the 4th floor. But it wouldn't come back down to the 3rd as it was set not to stop there - damn. Eventually, we were rescued by some Chinese security guards that found an unlocked stairwell on the other side of the building. And we made it to karaoke, wahoo!

So, karaoke is massive in China. The whole 4th floor of the mall was made up of gigantic karaoke booths being guarded by security men. We had a massive room for our group with free beer and snacks included for 40 yuan each (£4) from then until 6am. And we had the time of our lives! Once we figured out how to put on English songs, everyone was up, singing and dancing. Who knew karaoke could be so much fun? Tori sung a song in Chinese and despite only drinking water all night was dancing to all our awful voices. Max and Jamie did a pretty good duet of Stevie Wonder's 'Superstitious' and Steph rocked 'Wannabe' (by the Spice Girls if you're not cool enough to know that).

Painfully, the morning after karaoke we all had to meet in the lobby at 7.30am. We walked down to the river and boarded a gigantic boat for a trip down the Yangtze River, the longest river in China. The boat went through a lock to amazing views the other side; mountains with traditional Chinese buildings built in to the side of them. On the boat we also saw how a Chinese wedding is performed and were asked by dozens of Chinese for photos.

At the end of the boat journey, we joined the Chinese crowd to get off and board a coach. The coach took us to lunch followed by our trip to the Three Gorges Dam. We saw the dam from three viewpoints - it was quite an operation! The Chinese are very proud of the project. The main purpose of the concrete gravity dam is flood prevention, and over a certain time it is to protect 1.5 million people. At 185m above sea level, it also generates a crazy amount of electricity for cities all over China and has claimed over 100 world records.

Today we opted against the mountain trek (as did half the rest of the group). Instead, we had a stroll and rented out tandem bikes to cycle along the river to a beautiful temple. The structure and intricate detail of the temple is wonderful with Chinese lanterns hanging around the corners on each level. The tandem bikes were fun!

Once again, the hard part - an overnight train journey to Xi'an.

Steph and Max x