Day 17 - 21/10/09 - Beijing (China) Today was to be a big day... We were in the hotel lobby at 8:30 to meet Michelle for our trip to the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs. On the way to the Great Wall, we stopped in at a Clisonne factory, where they make vases, plates and various other objects out of copper and enamel. It was very interesting to see how these are made and the time it takes to make them. We arrived at the Great Wall at about 11am, and it was very cr...

Ni Hao! Day 15 - 19/10/09 - Beijing (China) Today was a 9am start with our tour guide, Michelle. Our first stop was to be Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City. Tiananmen Square was quite large and had decorations and huge TVs around as there had just been a large celebration held there at the beginning of October. The Forbidden City just kept going and going and going. Every time we thought we had reached the end, there was more to come. This is understanda...

Greetings from China! Day 13 - 17/10/09 - Ferry (Japan-China) Today was much the same as yesterday afternoon, and involved relaxing, playing cards, and sleeping most of the day. The meals were not great today, and not being able to eat much left our stomachs not very happy. The weather was very cold and windy, not like the weather we had been used to in Japan. This made for rough seas and a great deal of swaying for 24hrs. Day 14 - 18/10/09 - Ferry (Japan-Chin...

Ahoy! Day 11 - 15/10/09 - Hiroshima (Tokyo) Today we went for a walk down the Promenade of Peace to Hijiyama Park. We then took the Sky Walk Escalator which ended up at a large shopping centre. Jess fell in love with a giant Elmo, and he wanted to come meet everyone back in Aus, but he was too big and they might have made us pay for extra tickets for him to go everywhere with us! After having a quick look around the shops, Rhys & Erica headed back to the h...

Konitchiwa from Hirsohima! Day 9 - 13/10/09 - Osaka & Hiroshima (Japan) After breakfast, we checked out of our hotel and made our way to a local travel agent and booked our ferry trip for Friday (to arrive in China on Sunday). We are hoping this is all booked correctly as we cannot read the Japanese and the agents could not speak much English. It all looks to be ok from what we can tell. We then caught the subway back to Shin-Osaka and then a bullet train ...