Two hours west of Shanghai is Nanjing, our next stop and one of the most historic cities in China.

As well as being capital of early successive dynasties, Nanjing gained fame when Zhu Yuanzhang, the first and founding emperor of the Ming dynasty, defeated the Mongol Yuan dynasty (Gengis Khan's descendants), united the country and made Nanjing the capital, building a huge palace and city walls.

After the third Ming emperor moved the capital back to Beijing, Nanjing's fame declined until the British arrived during the Opium Wars in the 1840's and Nanjing became infamous due to the signing of the unequal Nanking Treaties, whereby we made them pay us loads of cash for the opium they destroyed, more cash for the fact we had to pay for a war against them, plus they had to give us Hong Kong and open up several Chinese ports to foreign trade. Well they started it!

After this Nanjing became the Taiping capital during the Taiping Heavenly Dynasty rebellion (1850 - 64) against the Qing Dynasty, which was a kind of failed forerunner to the 1911 rebellions which made China a republic.  The British plus US and European mercenaries helped the Qing Dynasty destroy the Taiping in 1864.

Lately in the 20th century Nanjing has been the capital of the Republic of China, the site of Japan's worst war atrocity against China (when they killed over 300k people and brutally raped over 20k women (some as young as 11) in the first month alone), and the Kuomintang Capital before the Communists took over China.

So basically there's a lot of old and important Chinese stuff here, and it's full of Chinese tourists on pilgrimage to Sun Yat Sen's (the father of the Republic) mausoleum, amongst other sites. Strangely though it's off the foreign tourist circuit, and apart from the odd bus load of honkies, we were about the only white people in the town of over 5m.

This makes it fun when walking down the street as everyone stares, often with mouth wide open in amazement. Traffic police stop doing their jobs as they can't take their eyes off us, kids look terrified, people nearly crash their bikes, people watch us eat, and other men try to look at Rich's bits while he goes to the toilet.

Nanjing has also been our first(and surely not last) experience of barely anyone speaking English (fair enough as it is China, although American tourists can't abide this and lose their tempers). The other night it took Rich half an hour to get a few translations and ask the hotel receptionists if there was an English television channel.  You can get by though by asking the few English-speaking locals to write Chinese translations down for you, but often this seems to confuse taxi drivers anyway.

Arriving on Sunday, a bit light-headed after the FA Cup Final, we spent the first day at the Drum and Bell Towers, before visiting the Presidential Palace, where Sun Yat Sen held office as the President of the newly-formed Republic in 1912.

Upon seeing possibly her first westerner, a middle-aged Chinese lady ran over and put her arm around Allison while her husband took a photo. We're used to being the local freak show now.

The next day we visited the Linggu and Sun Yat Sen scenic areas, the latter containing the mausoleum of the dead ex-president.

Thousands of Chinese must flock to this daily as it was packed, yet even the large signs asking for silence in the mausoleum didn't stop them from shouting down their mobile phones, grollying and laughing and joking. I'm sorry to say that on our journeys so far I don't think we've met a ruder and more disrespectful people. Even the founder of the new China it seems does not deserve respect.

After this we visited the Ming Tomb of Zhu Yuanzhang and the Nanjing Museum, before visiting the Zhonghua Gate (built along with the walls by the first Ming emperor), the Taiping Heavenly Dynasty Museum and the Fuzi (or Confucius) Temple the next day.

The Zhonghua Gate was one of the gates that was probably locked in 1937 when the Japanese approached and the government declared that 'all those with blood and breath should stay and be broken as jade rather than left whole as tile'. As the governemt left they locked all the gates except one, which in the ensuing rush and crush left thousands of people trampled to death.

Nanjing certainly has seen it's share of tragedy and death, but has taught us a lot about Chinese history.

Next we fly to Chengdu, home of the Giant Panda Breeding Sanctuary.