We arrived in to Xian station at 8.00am and immediately got picked out as tourists by a taxi driver who offered us a very cheap fare to our hotel in his people carrier. To be fair he didn't give us a hard sell to be our driver but we did actually take him up on his offer to use him for the next day to take us to the Terracotta Army and some sightseeing afterwards. After checking in to our hotel we went off exploring - it was a grey and drizzly day but geare...

We left Shanghai early Tuesday morning on the metro to the railway station for our 4.5-hour journey to Beijing on the 2nd fastest train in the world. We watched the speed creep up on the display screen to 350km per hour, that's fast. We arrived on schedule and our driver was waiting for us at the other end to take us to Jinshanling, a 3-hour drive outside of Beijing. Heather had found a new hotel that was offering introductory rates and was right next door t...

We hopped on the airport bus just opposite our hotel to Hong Kong Airport for our 6.00pm flight to Shanghai with low budget airline Spring, arriving in to Pudong at 9.00pm and a couple of hours later we were sitting in Adam's apartment in Shanghai. Adam was away for a few days so we made ourselves at home. Beautiful, modern and spacious 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom apartment with a balcony, we were very comfortable. We weren't sure what to expect and were pleasan...