Hello again, sorry it's been so long ...such a busy 3 or 4 weeks but we've seen so much and really enjoyed the experience. Decided we need to split the blog/pictures up - so be prepared for a few updates over the next couple of days - just like buses!!

So ....Qingdao to Beijing:

Qingdao, (still on our independent tour), was nice, not exactly at the beach as anticipated but in the Olympic marina with the beaches about 20 minutes walk away. Great promenade at night and more neon buildings. The beer factory visit was interesting although we picked up the wrong peanuts on the way out. Thought we were getting honey nuts but they were savory...oh well they all complimented the local (Tsingtao or otherwise) beer. The guide was at least 70 and his English not so good but we learned enough about the city to enjoy a relaxing 2nd day there strolling along the coast - although warm a mist lingered over the sea all day which gave a rather strange background for all the wedding couples having photos taken. Have since learnt that it's traditional for couples to have professional photos taken 6 - 12 months before the actual ceremony so the album is available for all the guests to see. We have seen them all over but those at the beach were the most bizarre - the girls especially, all made up/hair done, long white dresses which they hitch up to reveal jeans & boots underneath! Strange but necessary as they then take a hike across the beach & rocks with the photographer shouting orders for the various poses.

The next and final stop on the independant tour was Tianjin, another massive city. Plenty of high rise but also some older traditional areas. Bit of a history lesson for me (Catherine) as we spent a couple of hours in the museum of the Astor Hotel ......even had afternoon tea with our guide! The Astor was the setting for many agreements and treaties during colonial times as well as the revolution and the building is a museum as well as active hotel. Amusing as our beautiful guide Jenny tried eating a cucumber sandwich with chopsticks...

Tianjin is 120kms from Beijing so an easy 30 min hop on the express train! We arrived at the hotel in Beijing the day before our group tour began - quite a difficult 24 hours as there was very little English spoken, we couldn't get WiFi so weren't certain exactly where we were or where the nearest metro station was. Fortunately, we decided to take a walk in the right direction & found The Temple of Heaven,10 minutes away although our evening 'stroll' for dinner ended up more like a 5 mile hike despite having found a map by then. The temple and parks were fantastic as it is used by the locals like their back garden. We saw sword and spear fighting...fancy bringing three foot swords and large pointy spears to the park...Kung fu and tai chi...a lot of singers of varying ability...line dancing and the waltz...a game where you stand in a circle and kick what looked like badminton shuttles up in the air without touching the ground....they were brilliant at it....flowers, birds and squirrels, black with long furry ears and of course the temple. It's difficult to describe the scale but big will do.

We joined our 'Wild China' 3 week group tour on Sunday 27th October. The leader, Leon, a 29 year old from Beijing has been great, so passionate about China - I think he was as excited as us. There are 16 of us on the tour - to our surprise we are not the oldest - we have an eighty year old 'on board'! I think half of the others are under 30 but we are all getting on very well, despite the tiredness, a cold which is doing the rounds and the usual sickness/tummy troubles!

Although Beijing is famous for the 'smog' we were very fortunate with the weather and had fantastic views of the Great Wall - we went to the part at Mutianyu. Although, I'm not sure quite what I was expecting, I was surprised that the walk we did was so uphill - just thousands of steps! My calf muscles didn't recover for a week and then it was only after the hardest & most painful massage of my life!

We spent our last day in Beijing, also bright & sunny, doing a whistle stop tour of Tian'anmen Square ( there had been an 'incident' - maybe you read about it but the BBC news article was blocked in China - the day before, so policing and the party line more evident here than anywhere else on the tour), The Forbidden City, once again the scale has to be seen to be believed, then a ride on a bicycle rickshaw (cyclo) through the ancient Hutongs (alleyways) in the Old City - this included lunch in a local home - all delicious though nothing like Chinese food in the UK ( Food has improved massively since joining the tour - because Leon generally orders a selection of dishes which we all share) - the only problem was feeling extremely sorry for the poor guy having to cycle both Paul & I ....do hope he's recovered by now.

Left Beijing by overnight train - getting to the right station let alone the right side of it was pretty stressful as Leon split us into groups of 3 and sent us out with money & a scrappy piece of paper with details of where we had to go in Chinese to give to the taxi driver, might have been ok if it wasn't rush hour. We had to walk down a block or 2 but arrived, miraculously, in plenty of time. Thought our 10 nights on the Tran-Siberian would have prepared us but this was a bit different as we travelled in the 'hard-sleeper' class. Each compartment has 6 bunks, 3 each side - as we have 3 overnight trains on the tour, we are supposed to take turns in each top, middle and bottom but so far we have always had bottom - like to think Leon is respecting our age but not sure if he actually thinks we can't make it to the top! There are toilets at each end of the carriage (unfortunately both Chinese (squat) style - but at least they have a door which is more than the communal affair at Xi'an railway station). Anyway, survived the night - this was definitely not the 'wild' part of the tour - it's pot-noodle for dinner & lights out at 10pm.

More to follow...