Spent the morning on the internet trying to sort out accomodation for next week. Hannah and I were hoping to get the overnight train to Harbin on Monday night, but we couldn't get tickets and have to go Monday afternoon. I had made the hotel reservation for Tuesday and Wednesday so I was trying to change it but Hostelworld say on their website to contact the hotel directly and when I wrote to the hotel they said to speak to Hostelworld. I then tried contacting...

Decided to spend the whole day today exploring the Purple mountains which are just a couple of miles to the East of the City Centre. It was a bit of a mission trying to find it, but once into the park you would not believe you were so close to a city populated by 5.6 million people!! The park is divided into 3 sections - The Ming Tombs, Linggu Temple and Dr Sun Yat-Sen's Mausoleum and each section has many places of interest to visit and scenic views to enjoy. ...

An early start this morning to catch the train to Nanjing. It was a shortish journey (2 hours) and I arrived at mid day and got the tube out to the hostel. Got off at the tube station and walked for about half an hour before I decided I was going in the wrong direction so turned back and started again. This time I gave up after 15 minutes and asked someone. I was on the right road now but had been walking in the wrong direction! Finally found the hostel and ...