Hey everyone This is my first postcard in China. What can I say?! Nothing could have prepared us for the culture shock that is China. The greatest shocks have been the lack of spoken English and the most disgusting toilets I have ever seen. Also, spitting and smoking appear to be two of the most popular pastimes. Oh the sweet sound of people hocking up and gobbing everywhere; who needs the sound of birds singing in a morning when you have that? Hav...

It rained all day on Friday so we hid in our room and read books. Exciting stuff. It was actually really good to do nothing for once...there's always seems to be temples to visit and waterfalls to hike to (it's a hard life this travelling lark!) Yesterday we went to the lake to watch a demonstration of Comorant fishing. Comorants are large birds which have been specially trained by the local fishermen to catch and bring back fish. The fishermen prevent the ...

Hello again, There's free internet at the hostel (hence the daily enteries). Well today I had a lie in for the first time in ages (though still only til 9am; i've gone all native) In the afternoon we took a ride on a horse drawn cart, though it's not as romantic as it sounds; very bumpy and those animals smell! We also went for a ride in a cable car (Which looked more like a ski lift; the ones where your feet dangle out, though i'm sure they're quite s...

Hello, Well I think we have gotten over the initial culture shock of China, though there are a few things which are difficult to adjust to: 1) Being starred at. Some people literally stop in their tracks to stare at us, while some children (who are clearly learning English at school) shout hello, which is quite sweet. We've even had some children run over to take our photo (no chance to pose!) celebrity status for us! 2) The toilets. Most public t...