Beijing calling. This is our forth and last night in Beijing. This is easily the best city we've been to in China and we've been running around for the last 3 days trying to see as much as possible. We arrived Friday afternoon and it was an early rise Saturday to see Chairman Mao Memorial Hall in Tiananmen Square. This is the second time we have seen the mummified corpse of a Communist Leader after we saw Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi. We queued with countless other ...

After 4 nights of patiently waiting in Datong, which we actually grew to like, we were at the doors of the PSB with our passports in our hands waiting and praying that we would get a visa extension. We met the same lady who had told us on Monday (and again on Wednesday when we went back just to make sure) to come back on Friday when the man who deals with foreign passports would be in. Of course, this same man was not working today but thankfully the lady took ...

The overnight train from Xi'an had us in Pingyao at the crack of dawn, 5.30am to be exact. Neither were fully awake when we got off and it was with great relief that we found our pre-arranged pick-up waiting for us and we were checked into the guesthouse and into a comfortable bed soon afterwards. Pingyao is probably the best-preserved ancient walled city in China, or so the guide book says. We stayed in a chinese guesthouse with a small double room which open...

Greetings to all, It's been an absolute age since i sent an email to everyone but i hope to keep this short and sweet. Those who have been following our travel blog probably won't read anything new so continue at your own boredom. Also, as bebo is one of the many internet sites banned and therefore blocked here in China (along with the likes of BBC News, etc) i haven't been able to reply to people's comments, sorry. Since i last wrote we been through Thailand...

We arrived into Xi'an after what in the end turned out to be a 6 hour bus journey from Luoyang. Checked into the hostel (even though they couldn't find our booking) and just sat about chatting and chilling in the very nice hostel bar. Next day was supposed to be an early rise to see the Terracotta Warriors but it was midday by the time we got out to see them. They were amazing. However, the amount of Chinese tourists was phenomenal. It is disappointing that you ...