Harbin Day 1 & 2 So this is it, we'd been looking forward to and dreading this part of the trip in equal measure. I'd seen about this amazing ice festival that takes place for a month in Harbin, In northern china. Crazy palaces built out of ice and an international snow sculpture expo. The downside is temperatures go between -20 and -40c. I have never known temperatures that cold and we had only been able to prepare so much as our bags were so small. When ...

Due to timings Xi'an was always going to be a bit whistlestop but things were made a little worse by the pollution. On the drive to the airport from Chengdu we were lucky if we could see one car ahead. The countless number of red lettering next to flight numbers on the departures board spelt a few hours delay while China tries to reshuffle flights. This was made slightly worse by the fact this was the period for China's mass migration. Children visit their famili...

After a long day of travel via sleeper train, taxi & plane we made it to Chengdu airport. We'd arranged to meet Alan in the baggage hall, looking at the arrivals his flight was about an hour delayed so we people watched until he arrived. Exhausted but in one piece Alan arrived, time to get to the hostel & have a beer! We decided to visit the Leshan Giant Buddha the next day. The private car option was too expensive so we decided to brave the buses! We ...

Woohoo. Another night sleeper train. I actually quite enjoyed my 1st one so hopes were high that this one would also be good. This time we had both booked bottom bunks so it wouldn't be as much of a struggle getting into bed! The taxi pulled up at the train station & we were blown away. The outside was bigger than Stanstead airport. Passports and tickets were checked at the door, bags & belongings through the metal detector! Luckily for us the signs were...

China has always felt like the big unknown even from the planning stages. It's so big, even what we thought were large towns are actually populated by 10 million people!! Asia has been so easy so far, communication and transport have been far less stressful than we thought. China changes all that! Luckily for us airport signage is dual language so at least we could find the exit but that's where it stops. We had the hostel address written in mandarin and thank ...