so il start with a nice story. walking down the street in kaifeng the other day (notably the home of the jews in china) and saw a guy wearing a t shirt saying (in english -bizarrely) "keep the japs out". modern china- open to the world. no racism here folks! hey everyone. im in chonqing. i can see the yangste river from our hotel. a world away from the familiar Thames and as usual im a little homesick but we found a bookstore to replenish reading supplies at least and this city is pretty civilised for a change so its all alright. weve spent the last week trying to keep out of the sun in central china. the heatwave has been a little tricky. we visited shaolin temple, saw some kung fu, (too hot to participate) visited luoyan for its crazy longmen caves and bought me a dress- i know. something to do tho isnt it. headed for kaifeng, a pretty cool city with a crazy night market, old streets and lakes. nice park full of dynasty gardens- the park is the site of about 4 layers of palaces destroyed by yellow river floods and rebuilt for each new dynasty. u think theyd learn? but no. also home to a big lake everyone seems content to splash about in. even tho it was around 40 degrees stil not hot enuff to tempt me and chris into stagnant water full of sewage rubbish and dead fish. wait for the pics! anti japanese sentiment is just just one of the hundreds of weird/wonderful/disgusting/bizarre/extreme/ sights we've seen on our travels thru china. weve definitely got off the beaten track a bit. spent the last week in a province where ud think theyev never even heard of a white person let alone seen one. and no it wasnt just chris' hair they were gawping at. just us. all the time. everyone. all the time. staring. it grates a little bit! and if theyre not staring they are trying to con u/sell u something which in china means the same thing. the last two nights have been total contrasts. treated ourselves to a night of luxury in zhengzhou when we arrived to find we couldnt get a train out. headed for the nicest hotel in the city. hotel sofitel. 5 stars. one night queen size deluxe suite. use of pool/gym/breakfast. less than 50 quid altogether so a nice bday present for us both. left revitalised, relaxed and full on fried -and- continental breakfast only to spend the next excruciating 26 hours- yep, 26 u heard right- on a train trying to get here to join our yangste cruise. nightmare. we had heard there were express trains but perhaps not! sharing a room/cupboard with the worst elements of china, spitting, crapping and smoking- and making the worst mess imaginable. a big joke on the laowais (foreigners) i think to put us in cabin with total gyppoes. and chinese ppl are disgusting enuff anyway - just wait for the stories when i get home. as a taster- chinese children do not use nappies. use ur imagination. at least the boiling hot weather has backed off a bit for now and we are hopeful the boat trip shd be very good. we get on tomorrow night and will be out of touch again for a few nights till we arrive in shanghai 27th. hope all is well at home sianyxxx