Population: 400,000 Province: Sichuan Location: 3099m above sea levelSat 11/11 - 8.30 start to Leshan to visit The Grand Buddha, Dafo, 71m high and carved into the cliff face overlooking the confluence of the Dadu and Min Rivers. We were told this is the largest outdoor seated stone Buddha in the world. It took about 90 years to complete the statue. Very impressive, and as we got there fairly early on we just about beat the crowds!After lunch we continued on to t...

Population: 11.3M Province: Capital of Sichuan  Location:  West of the Sichuan BasinWe caught the overnight train from Xi'an, arrived Friday 10th November 5.30am, we were all very tired as we didn't get much sleep.  Straight to the hotel to drop bags off then out for breakfast to Holly's Cafe, more banana pancakes for me!First stop of the day was the Chengdu Panda Breeding & Research Base.  I know its a really gi...

Population: 6.8M   Province: Shaanxi   Location:  Located on the Silk Road Arrived in Xi'an (former Imperial Capital) this morning around 8.30am on the overnight train fromBeijing...great fun...slept in a cabin of sorts (open door into thin corridor...that sleeps 6) I was in the middle bunk with George on the top bunk...Jules and Gen on the bottom bunks and Tom opposite me with John on the other top bunk...the others were in...

Nihao from Beijing!We arrived about 11am in Beijing. We were really tired so cheated and got a taxi to the hotel 45 min cab ride...can't believe how huge the city is, pop of 14m I believe. Met up with the other 10 folks on Friday night who we will be travelling with, they all seem a really fun bunch...4 Australians and the rest from the UK.Saturday - Got up very early on Sat morning and took a 3 hour bus journey to Simatai where we hiked the Great Wall.....

Nihao from Beijing!We arrived about 11am in Beijing. We were really tired so cheated and got a taxi to the hotel 45 min cab ride...can't believe how huge the city is, pop of 14m I believe. Met up with the other 10 folks on Friday night who we will be travelling with, they all seem a really fun bunch...4 Australians and the rest from the UK.Saturday - Got up very early on Sat morning and took a 3 hour bus journey to Simatai where we hiked the Great Wall.....