After 3 nights in Shaghai I made the 2 hour train journey south to Hangzhou, which is pretty lame considering some of the mammoth train journeys I have been on in the last couple of months. My hostel was located on the opposite side of the lake to the city which was good as it meant that it was relatively peaceful. When I got to the hostel I had a quick look around where I was staying and headed back to the hostel and met up with Paul and Linda again (I think t...

After all the fun and games with the hostel in Pingyao cocking up my train ticket to Xi'an I made it here after spending 8 hour on the bus and not 6 like the hostel said it would take!!! Thanks Yeman hostel, I almost wet myself because of you. If I knew it was going to take 8 hours I would have planned by toilet breaks accordingly. I can't complain really as the Paddy girls had to sleep sitting up in the restaurant car of their train for 11 hours!! Ha ha!!! ...

Ah Pingyao! A well preserved traditional Han Chinese city halfway between Beijing and Xi'an surrounded by a completely intact 6km Ming dynasty city wall. I only spent 2 nights here as there wasn't that much to see. I arrived here at silly o clock in the morning again (I should be getting use to it but I'm not) and made my way to Yeman hostel with a Ham who was an Aissie (poor sod) living in Beijing. After a good 3 hours of sleeping I decided to get up and wal...

Beijing, I loved Beijing. There was loads to see and do so I stayed for 7 nights instead of the 5 i intended to stay for. Me and Chris arrived in Beijing on the 2nd of September at 0530 after travelling for god knows how long. We got the bus from just inside the Chinese border as there was no space on the Ulaan Bataar - Beijing trains. Chris thought it would bea good idea to get friendly with an American couple who spoke Chinese but they turned out to be comp...

Me and Chris arrived in the Mongolian capital of Ulaan Bataar on the 26th of August after spending what seemed more than 2 nights on the train from Irkutsk with 2 crazy Irish girls. Tell a lie one crazy Irish girl and one fairly sensiable Irish girl. After checking into our hostel and finally managing to get some money from those con merchants Western Union we spent a good 4 hours queuing for and buying train and sleeper bus tickets for Beijing. We had to ...