Sorry it's been so long since I've updated - at the end of the project there was very little I did which I hadn't written about before and then since I've started the tour it's been difficult to get internet access. I think it will be a couple of weeks until I can upload photos; hopefully I will be able to in New Zealand.

After spending six hours in Xi'An airport on Saturday (excellent fun), I arrived in Beijing in the late evening. Having my own hotel room with ensuite felt very luxurious! On the Sunday we visited the Great Wall which was pretty exhausting (I didn't realise there were so many steps) but really brilliant; it's quite an astouding sight to see and I was able to reward myself for my efforts with a sandwich from Subway at the bottom! In the evening I went to the markets at Silk Street and then we went to a rather spectacular Kung-Fu show.

On Monday I crossed a few more tourist sights off the list, with a visit to Tianamen Square and the Forbidden City. After lunch I also went on a long walk around the beautiful gardens at the Temple of Heaven on my own which was a nice, peaceful trip, if a little exhausting after two days of a lot of walking. Before getting the night train to Xi'An, I fuelled up in Costa Coffee (was so excited to see this in Beijing that I couldn't resist buying myself a brownie) and McDonald's which was an excellent Chinese cultural experience.

I found it really difficult to sleep on the night train and thus was exhausted when I arrived in Xi'An. We visited the incredible Terracotta Warriors in the pouring rain then had a dumpling banquet in the evening - I never knew there were so many flavours and shapes of dumpling, it was certainly enlightening! Today I was up at 5am to get a flight to Hangzhou which is a beautiful city. I enjoyed walking round the lake today and tomorrow we will visit another water town before going on to Shanghai, my last stop before getting the ferry to Japan.

Hope to speak to you all soon!