Is this the way to Hong Kong?

We arrive in Yichang and it is pretty apparant that this town is not designed for the travelling folk of this world. First stop is some hotel by the train station which we decide will do for one night only. For some sort of scale this is possibly the worst hotel/hostel we've stayed in this far - the only thing going for it is the two beds :) and doesnt look like we're going to have the luxury of attempting to find a western toilet anywhere in this city.

Well, we ain't staying in here all day so we move on out. We need food and the internet. Set off with the rubbish Lonely Planet Guide map and go wandering. We find an internet cafe eventually and dont move. Thanks for all the chats with the folk at the Union - kept us entertained whilst we were uploading the pics on the website.

Oh, that and Gem nearly getting in a fight with the owner of the cafe. Her computer turned itself off, she wasnt happy. This happens though when you've been on the internet for hours and used up all your credit and the nice chinese man just wants some more of your hard earned cash.

8pm and we are hungry. you'd think it would be easy but nope, the restaruants are closing up shop now and Yichang is going to bed??? what?? rubbish!! we do find one though (just before we were about to give up and head to mcd's) and order steak (gem), rice and pork (amy).........this is what arrives, two glasses of cold coffee, two glasses of sherry or something, steak with pasta and fried egg????, a bowl of lettuce covered in sweet and sour sauce and a tray of pork, rice, peppers, cabbage stuff and an assortment of about 4 different sauces. We were confused but oh well. Gem practised her charades again and asked for a menu - she was brought hot water instead :)

That was as exciting as it got today.

Next morning we pack up shop and head for the bus station. Walking down the hill and sure we can here someone shouting our name??? hmmmmm??? turn round and its Matt and Edgar form the hostel in Xi'an. They too have just got off another cruise boat and now going their seperate ways. Edgar like us though is looking to get to Wuhan and we set off together.

All realtively simple and we're on the bus and on our way within 45 mins.

5hours later and Wuhan looks much the same as Yichang - not much for us to do here so we go looking for the train station and some tickets out of here. First off, we set off in the wrong direction (not so much of a problem if your not carrying your life on your back), the taxi wont take us cos they say its not that far, and so a couple of km?? later we arrive.

We would like two overnight tickets to Hong Kong please and Edgar's looking to get to Gulin?? I think. Same story as Xián though - nope sorry, no tickets. not today, or the next day or the next day. what???? have no idea why they dont want to sell us the tickets.

We've spotted a travel agency outside and hope they can help but of course, they dont sell train tickets???? :) bless them though, they try their hardest to be helpful and after letting me use their phone i think they have given us a place we can try and buy tickets from.

This is useless.......go looking for a hotel instead. Advertises outside that they can get you tickets - we ask. nope this isn't possible and to fly will cost us a fortune. We need to rethink and find ourselves an internet cafe. Edgar manages to get himself a bus ticket but not til tomorrow so we all check in.

Next stop internet cafe, again a major task in itself and me and gem are straight on to www.elong.net for cheap flights in China if you ever need one (thanks for the tip Grant and Hazel). 40 pounds to fly to Shenzhen (about an hours outside of Hong Kong) - we'll take two please although not qutie sure how we are going to get the tickets before the morning. Hold on to some small hope they could get delivered to the hotel.

Job done (JD!!:) and again we're hungry - the next task of locating a bank machine takes an hour and so we just walk into the next restaraunt we see. Nobody speaks any english!!!! and the menu has no english either. Out comes the lonely planet guide and we start pointing at random food dishes in the hope they can make it. nope,nope,nope as the waiter shakes his head at everything we point at. he keeps pointing at the stewed eel however and saying he can do that. eh, no thanks!! we get something ordered and possibly the worst food we've had so far. thats it.

Next morning - edgar leaves to catch his bus and i phone some elong number to find out about our tickets. its about 12 and our flight leaves at 4.30. oh yes, its too late to send you your tickets now the nice lady kindly explains to me but we do have an office on the other side of Wuhan on the 47th floor of some world trade building. Excellent!! Taxi!!

Can we find the tower???? nope??? does anyone in Wuhan know where the tower is??? nope??? aaaggggghhhhh!!!! We find it. Floor to the 47th floor and the office is empty - as if elong have moved out and left behind a building site. oh dear!!!!

Back to reception - oh yes, they've moved to the 30 somethingth floor. Oh, of course they have. Back in the lift and oh yeah we find it. Elong lady speaks no english - we communicate by the telephone with one of her colleagues in Beijing who tells us it'll be ok and then she hangs up.

It is getting nearer to 2pm we have no tickets and we can make out that the chinese lady is having an indepth conversation on the phone with someone about her broken desk. Its not even broken!!! What about our tickets lady?? come on!!

Turns out she was waiting for some dude to deliver them - she just couldnt tell us this.

Thanks, gotta go. Taxi to hostel, pick up bags, taxi to airport please. We arrive about 3.45pm. oh my goodness!!! and make it through with 20mins to spare.

Of course though, our flight is delayed :)

Row, row, row your boat........

Our boat is an OK looking boat...no big white luxury cruise liner but a lot more attractive than some of the tin cans that seem to be sailing people up the river! These boats have four people in a cabin (maybe more) have no hot water and rank showers and they don't give you any food on the boat so you have to bring your own. In contrast mine and Amy's boat has double cabins with teles showing movies all through the day, our own bathroom pod and a buffet meal breakfast lunch and dinner...and all of our excursions are included. This may give off the impression that we are rich kids on tour but in fact this luxury came from the 50p jar...thanks Madtin Gravy...bearer of the 50p jar :) and James Maggot for all his contributions!

So we get on the boat and head to the top deck to watch polluted Chongqing disappear in the distance. We spy three other foreigners and the rest are chinese. We perch on a picnic table and await for our departure...and then the foghorn starts...it's like the chinese roads where the vehicles beep at each other for reasons unbeknownst to the rest of the world except now we are on a boat and they feel the need to make noises at every moving object going past...unfortunately me and Amy have sat right next to it and are now partially deaf :)

Our first port of call is lunch and we meet the, not three but four westerners who are also imprisoned on the boat with us for the next threee days! There is Hazel and Grant (from Scotland) and Heather and Tom (from Kansas State). We are destined to get to know each other a lot better since we will do the tours and eat meals together for the next few days. After lunch Amy and I take advantage of the hot (not sunny) weather and go and sit on deck before our first excursion...we take this to mean that we will be safe getting off the boat in our skirts and flip flops...not so, we get off the boat and it starts to rain, then pour then thunder and lightning...since we are the most unprepared six for this kind of weather we all purchase some very attractive and brightly coloured ponchos from the touts in the streets...these were cheaper than umbrellas (by about 10p) so we opted to, as Grant put it, look like giant condoms walking up the side of the mountain! That's right, todays excursion, in the thunder storm was visiting the Ghost City which was not so conveniently situated up a mountain.

Anyway, of our guide trots, completely unbewildered by the weather and we all follow on. The Ghost City is the place where the chinese believe you go after you die to be judged and either sent to heaven hell or to be reincarnated as an animal or a human, this is a mix between Buddhism and Taoism. We reach the first temple and have to shout "Ha-Hun" at the top of our voices to make our path through the City more easy, second stop the bridges you cross before you reach the Gods to be judged. Couples had to go over in nine steps and single people had to go over it in five steps. Stumbling at this point means you are a bad person and are nervous about meeting the Gods. So off Hazel, Grant, Tom and Heather go. Then it's mine and Amy's turn...the mixture of the rain, cheap flip flops, the lack of partner to hold onto and the unfairly low number of steps means me and Amy slip and slide over the bridge...oops! The idea of the couples going together in nine (lucky number) steps is so that they have luck in finding each other in the next life...although if one of you is a dog and the other is a human, im not sure how the laws work with that one ;)

Next station - Gates of Hell...which you have to step over right leg first and don't touch the wood...simple enough. We walk past the statues of all the wrong-dooers and come to the temple where you get judged. Here you have to balance on one foot on a small pointy stone for three seconds and read the sign on the door...again simple, or would have been had we not chosen the cheap flip flops in the rain scenario! Lastly there is the Homeward looking tower where you get to see your family and home for the last time and the corridor of statues being tortured in various different ways and all thats left to do is get down the mountain in record time to catch the boat thats about to leave!

We make it and are supposed to go straight to the captains welcome dinner but get waylaid by the idea of showering. A good idea since the ponchos weren't made to let your skin breathe too easily, i.e. us = big balls of sweat. We make it to dinner and then head off for some evening entertainment...Chinese folk dancing! Brilliant...and in the interval - musical chairs!! Grant eventually volunteered to get up and take part with three others, the funny thing was the music had lots of rests in it, so every time there was a break in the music, the four people would attempt to sit down and then get right back up again when they realised it wasn't and official 'stop'!

We soon noticed how the Chinese rushed off after the meals and didn't really come out of their rooms unless to eat or go on an excursion, so after the show, we were left alone in the bar feeling guilty about keeping the staff from their beds...and off we trot to get some sleep.

Day 2 on the boat went a lot like breakfast...excursion...lunch...nap...captains farewell dinner...the excusrsion was a trip down the Three Gorges with a mini tour of the Lesser Three Gorges but this bit got cancelled since the rain had caused the Gorge to flood. So we had to entertain ourselves with watching dead dogs float by, trying to spot monkeys on the mountain and being awed by how much of the scenery is going to be destroyed when they finish the Dam Project and flood the river some more...another 40m to go they said and they have already flooded it by 100m. People are being re-homed and cultural landmarks are being lost to the project.

The evenings entertainment was karaoke! A joy to sit through...we would have taken part had the ship not been going through a lock at the same time and standing outside in the cold dark and rain had been more appealing! Another hour of keeping the bar staff up and back to the rooms.

Early start on day 3, breakfast and excursion in quick succession - today we are off to visit the Dam site...the Ugly Dam site it should be called. It was a big concrete block in the middle of the river...from this tour I learnt that they are 2/3 of the way through finishing it and it is supposed to be finished in 200-9, they will have a ship lock and a ship elevator for boats to cross through and that's about it really. The guy who built the Dam got shot because they found cracks in it and he said that it was normal.

Then goodbye to the boat and hello to Yichang and a couple of days of being in limbo!

Breaking News from China...

SUPERMARKET FIRES CHUBBY CASHIER
A female cashier has been sacked for being too fat at a supermarket in Wenzhou. Teh girl was dismissed after her second day of work because her supervisor thought she was overweight. THe supermarket has agreed to pay the girl for the two days of work.

WHATEVER NEXT? HENS MIGHT FLY
A hen amazed Nanjing residents on Monday by taking flight. THe hen was seen flying between buildings and wires, all dozens of metres above the ground. The hen's owner said she bought it in Anhui days ago and kept it on the balcony of her family's fifth floor apartment until it disappeared. Experts specualte that the hen might have developed the ability to fly because it was raised in the wilderness.

CROOKED HIGHWAY HAS BETTER FENGSHUI
Officials from Shanglin County's communications bureau in the Guangxi Zhunag Autonomous Region have been puzzling over how and why a straight highway built to link the county's Lujing Village to the Mingliang Town-ship has been reconstructed into a crooked one. Local villagers raised a large sum of money to reconstruct the straight highway into a zigzag because they were told last month by a fortune teller that the road was too straight and was affecting the village's fengshui.

LONG_HAIRED STUDENTS TURNED AWAY FROM CLASS
THe local education department in Guangzhou's Baiyan District is investigating complaints from the parents of more than 30 female students who were refused entry to their school on Tuesday because of the length of their hair. The grade 3 students who attend the junior department of the Guangzhou No.115 High School, had to wait outside the school for a whole day because their hair falls below their shoulders.

76-YEAR-OLD SAYS HIS SEX LIFE'S NO GOOD
A court has rejected a 76-year-old's case for divorce in Chongqing Municipality recently. The man wanted to divorce his wife because he was dissatisfied with their sex life. Ma and his wife have been married for 50 years, but he recently decided to file for divorce to seek a better sex life. Ma said he and his wife have not had sex for years. Ma is said to have a girlfriend in her 40's with whom he wants to live. The court rejected Ma's case ruling "Fifty years of marriage prove that the couple have a stable love basis."

Next stop - chongqing

A four hour bus ride and we arrive in Chongqing. It's pretty grimy and the roads are being dredged up. We hate carrying our rucksacks....maybe we packed too much, maybe it's just too much like exercise but we definitely don't appreciate it and plan to get some wheels for our next trip! We go in search of a hostel - there aren't any in Chongqing, hotels all the way. So we find one across the road and book into a room.

The hotel is quite nice and even boasts a swimming pool...when me and Amy go in search of the pool it looks more like a stagnant pond - all thoughts of swimming are out the window. We have two days to kill here before we get on our cruise and after reading up on Chongqing in the lonely planet, i don't think it's going to be the easiest thing to do. We eat, wander the streets, have our nails done (who wouldn't if it was 1.5 pounds!), look at the river, find the pet cemetary (i mean pet market) to see such sights as a dead rat, cages full of birds, boxes full of puppies, green poodles, pink poodles...we left fairly abruptly!

One thing about this place was the taxi rank, which wouldn't take you anywhere...you had to walk up the road in order to be able to pick up a cab...which defeats the object of a taxi (to take you where you want to go) - if we wanted to walk there we wouldnt have been looking for a taxi to take us in the first place! All that's left to do is wait for AMY to come and pick us (gem and AMY) to take us to the cruise where we will be met by AMY who is the tour guide on the boat!

Ain't no mountain high enough

So, we could have quite easily decided to do nothing with our last day in Chengdu - well apart from hang out at the hostel - eating, sleeping, reading - which would've been good but instead we decided not to waste?? the day. Depends on which you look at I suppose :)

Of the list of possible adventures to go on we decided to climb a mountain - of course, it makes sense, seeing as me and Gem are professionals at this sort of thing.

We refer to the Bible (I.e the lonely planet book) and yep, Qingsheng mountain is merely 60km away which requires us to navigate our way via three Chinese public buses. easy!!! Never quite sure if you're on the right one you kinda of just go with it. Although we did cheat a little at the second bus station and asked the nicest tourist information lady who was v. helpful.

And then we just get off, we dont know if this is the right stop, the mountain should've been a clue but we just judged it by - em, i think we've been on the bus long enough now!! it works!! 5 min walk up the hill - theres a mountain!! and a zillion chinese tourists.

Pay for our ticket to get in and oh yes the tickets for the cable car to take us to the top - you didnt actually think we were going to climb it did you? :) although its not directly at the bottom.

First off we need to get to a lake first and take a ferry - how many modes of transport??

So, sitting waiting for the ferry, amusing ourselves at the over and under statues, in this peace loving temple covered mountain and what happens, a fight breaks out??? calm down people!! of course we have no idea what the chinese are arguing about but a couple of guys are not happy with their tour guide (maybe it was the hat she made them wear :) but no seriously, all got a bit heated and a little scary to watch. Some poor Westerner dude (the only one on their tour and the only other one in the vicinity) steps in. The very loud screaing continues as our ferry takes off.

Off to fun scenario No.2 - amy on a cable car. I can get a bit funny with heights and 1600m up (thats 4 running tracks to me and you) is not so much fun. Turns out not to be all that bad.

First stop when we reach the top, the vending man selling potatoes on sticks of course :) and then to the Temple. Again it was nice but I'm dissapointed to say looks like every other temple we've seen in China so far - feeling pretty pleased we didnt walk all the way up now.

The view from the top = a breathtaking, showstopping view of grey mist - not one to be missed people :) and a current theme of China unfortunately.

I'm not being entirely fair though it was pretty amazing of what we could see and plenty to keep us occupied as we walked down the mountain - who knew walking down a mountain could hurt your muscles as much as walking up a mountain???

Along the way down you bump into couples of professional Chinese chair carriers (or something like that), who want to carry you down this mountain on a chair, balanced on their shoulders, for a fee of course. Absolutely, no way!!!! but they dont seem to understand this. I know they're only trying to make a living but when some Chinese person takes them up on their offer they just look in pain - much sweating and I cant believe this just won't ruin thier backs before they reach the age of 40.

All that was left to do was find the same 3 buses home again, hmmmmm!!! but works out ok and some Chinese couple on the bus get talking to us. I think they just wanted to test their english but they were v. sweet. Most of the conversation however did revolve around the fact that Chinese vegetables were better :)

Pandas - Gem's version

So one thing that had to be done in Chengdu was to visit the world famous panda sanctuary, I think avid Blue Peter/Newsround watchers will be aware of the place and it's work. We had to get up early in order to see them doing something/anything and the morning is apparently the best time. So off we trot to the 7 seater minibus (all 8 of us) ... Amy is the last one to get to the bus and is relegated to sitting on the floor. Apparently we are transferring to another minibus in about 10 minutes though so it's all ok.

Turns out that it's just Amy getting on the other minibus though...d'oh. Forced separation does not register in the parents "DONT EVER LEAVE EACH OTHER'S SIDE" speech, but luckily we both survived. We go and see some pandas that are sleeping then some that are eating, then to see some baby ones, not that you could tell from the size of them. We also saw some red pandas which were much more lively. Then they gave us a film documentary on how the breed the pandas, some quite graphic scenes to be honest...not what we were expecting at 11 o clock in the morning, then we had the pleasure of looking at baby pandas and panda organs pickled in jars at the museum!

Just as we were leaving about 400 school kids turned up, no doubt to adhere to the PLEASE REMAIN QUIET signs all around the park :)

We spent the afternoon at the hostel and in the evening we went for some food with the people from the panda trip. We think they were finnish.

Now here's where mine and Amy's story's differ...we went for hot pot food, which is where you have a huge bowl of soup in the middle of the table on a hob and they bring lots of food for you to boil in it and eat. Brilliant idea since all the other food in China is so greasy. It was all going well until one of the guys starts pushing a a fish towards me through the soup making jaws noises...so I said to Amy, "that's a fish right, with fins?" and she said "yes Gemma" (as she does!) and I said, "but it wont have a head right?" and she siad "no"...turns out the fish and its fins are just flavouring the soup, cos everyone loves fish soup don't they! Then another guy dips his chopsticks into the soup to pick out the fish...and it does have a head...it gives a whole new meaning to the Big Dead Fish Restaurant along with the cabbage and the fish insides covering the rest of the food I felt a bit sick. Now I'll admit that I am a little fussy when it comes to food and I would have preferred it if there wasn't a fish floating in my dinner, luckily the guy next to me ate the fish(?) only for the waitress to then bring some more fish heads over and put them in the soup. It hasn't been my favourite meal of the trip so far and has only proven that I am squeamish when it comes to dead fish :)

Karaoke in the Park

Seriously, what do the chinese people do all day?? it is a mystery to Amy and me and we"ve spent ten days in their company! We arrived in Chengdu today at 5:30 to be once again hounded by people trying to help. Help = ripping us off, he tried to charge 200 yuan for the taxi ride which was supposed to cost 14 yuan! Loser. We declined and got in another taxi.

The Dragon Town Hostel is a very cool building set on a building site...we like to think of it as home! In the dark it looked fairly desolate, in the day people put tables and chairs out on the mud and stones and act as if they are in paradise...again what do they do with their days!

We went exploring for the day and headed to the People's Park. There seems to be a lot going on - people standing around watching other poeple making a lot of noise or dancing. There was several groups crowded around people who were learnign to dance, there was a heap of old men sitting round playing chess-style games, and karaoke if you can believe it - Thursday afternoon and they dont have anything better to do than learn to dance or do karaoke in a park (badly I might add!) It's brilliant. We also found the line dancing crowd again...too much arm movement going on for me and Amy to feel confident enough to join in so we just sat and watched! :)

Next on the list of sights to see in Chengdu is the statue of Mao.....we got a little sidetracked by the shops which is no bad thing since the statue wasn't all that interesting anyway. Yes, the shopping was absolutely necessary and we didn't buy anything that we didn't need!! Oh yeah and the macds was necessary too!! (chinese food makes me ill apparently!)

and thats us up to date again...!!

Happy Birthday Mr So Smaw - have a good one :)

And then the rain came in Xi'an

And so, much of the same happened the next day in Pingyao - we explore the other half of the ciy, went up walking round the city wall and little and then boarded another overnight train to Xi'an - think it was about 11 hours this time and once again we had opted for the very top bunks - nobody bothers you when your up there and its the cheapest.

We arrive - 6.30am and its raining :( boo!!! luckily, me and gem had decided to treat ourselves in Pingyao and booked what we thought was a nice hotel to stay in. Don't think we fitted in with their image though and the staff couldnt of been anymore unhelpful. We're sent to the back of the hotel, and althougth its nice to have our own hotel room we decide hostels are the way forward. We will be checking out tomorrow.

Not going to worry about it too much for now though and head on out to find the Army of Terracotta Warriors. We know we can get there using the ordinary public bus - much cheaper and quicker than any tour, which we have been told will stop at every jade outlet on the way there and back trying to get you to buy something.

We find the bus, we think??? and yep, arrive about an hour later. Still raining, so everything is still grey and miserable - can make out the outline of mountains in the background so you know its going to be gorgeous in the sunshine - but oh well, wasnt meant to be.

Inside is amazing - not sure our pictures to it justice but we tried :) Is crazy to think that all this was just uncovered by accident!! Spend the next few hours just walking round before heading on back.

Back at the hotel, we are looking for some help to book our next train tickets, find a phone that works and use the internet and no one seems interested. Getting seriously disheartened, we ask if reception can at least write down what we will need to ask at the train station. She does and we head on over - only to be told, no tickets avaiable the next day or the next day and probably no day if we keep on asking - rubbish!! The Chinese man is lying to us!! and we cant argue in Chinese.

Head off in search of a hostel that had been recommended to us and then we find him. Mr Jim Beam!!! seriously, this is the guys name, he runs the hostel we've been looking for and says he can help us. Cautious but grateful, the man (even if he is ridiculously happy all the time) sets out to help us. This guy even gets a mention in the lonely planet!! Imagine a young chinese dude who is about 5ft 3", in a suit a little too big, with glasses, bouncing around trying to help all the guests/sell them everything he can!!

We check in the next day and he has sorted us out with all our tickets!! brilliant!! we're back on track expect we've know got one sick gem. A day of rest is needed and bed for gem (well, eventually after she has followed me round, looking a bit green, for the whole morning:)

I have the joy of now hanging out on my own and looking for some friends - i would like to point out i didnt jsut leave sickface...no she did a grand job of being nurse maid for the day - thanks ayms:).........and did all that i was suppose to do i think.

Feeling a bit better in the eve - gem follows me downstairs - the green-ness has fade. Tis not long before we get chatting to two dudes from Mexico and one from the US - louis, edgar and a peps lookalike. all is good, louis gets his guitar, jim beam gets snap happy with the camera and three other guys from the hostel join the party - tom from birmingham, ryan from the US and mikel from the netherlands.

They announce they're going out dancing and we cant refuse - we wanna go dancing too!!! Head to some club called 1+1 and the conversation at the bar goes something like this;

- can i have a bottle of beer and a bottle of water (for sickface) please!!
- one bottle of beer = 25yuan
- ok, and one bottle of water
- thats 300 yuan!!
- what, for water???
- you want one bottle of wodka??
- no, water.
- wodka!!
- no water. (repeat about 5 times)

the dude calls over his sister to help out.

- i would like one bottle of beer one bottle of water. can you tell him behind the bar please?
- you want one beer and one wodka??
- NO!!! oh my goodnesss!!

much pointing at glasses, bottles later - we are talking the same language and we get the bottle of beer and the bottle of water.

the chinese dude hands me my change and asks - do you speak chinese????? is he having a laugh!!

and so the night continues in some comedy fashion. bottles of spirits are on every tablle and each group out has there own table - all very random, waitresses come round and mix the spirits into some sort of cocktail and we guess they all just pay at the end. we find a table, there is a few chinese rouund it and they dont seem to mind us being there. I dont know how to describe the next couple of hours - very weird!! but all good. mcuh dancing to some sort of house music every so often mixed in with 'eye of the tiger' or a gorillaz tune or some sort of spanish influenced track or a remake of a backstreet boys tune?????

We need to leave tomorrow - its 2am - so taxi home and bed!!! trying not to disturb the old, hairy, chines man who is sharing our room and we believe has everything he owns under his bed!!

Vodka Fizz

First impressions of Pingyao are a bunch of wannabe helpful chinese folk who leap on us trying to sort us out with taxis, hostels, tours...we already have a hostel so plump for a battery taxi to take us there. They really take some convincing that you actually have somewhere to stay?!

Pingyao is a small walled city, which in the dark, from the back of a bump golf cart contraption doesnt look too inspiring. We check in to a nice hostel, with our own shower/trickle of water (we are going up in the world) and after a quick nap we go exploring. First stop food and ran into the Australian guy, David, who we had been on the wall with. Small world.

Out on the main street there are stalls on either side of the road selling what can only be described as tat - John, you would have been in heaven ;) We wander round half the city in about an hour and realise that we are going to have to purchase one of the tourist tickets to see all the sights and sounds of Pingyao to fill up the rest of the day - we manage to swing student discount (acknowledgments for the dissertation...forgot to thank them for the student discounts!) We decided that once you'd been in one of the temples/famous folks houses/old finance offices you've pretty much seen them all...similar layout just rooms being used for different stuff. What did keep us amused was the chinese-english signs again...check out the photos for the results.

More food - this time we found the best sweet and sour sauce in the world! And a little wine to make things more interesting! In the next room we seemed to be seranaded by a man hitting a wok with a lot of energy - it was quite annoying. Turns out it was actually a band, with instuments, and an audience!

We ended up stopping in another bar on the way back to the hostel, the local! It would have been rude not to pop in for a drink. And guess what - vodka fizz is on the menu! So while Amy spends about 40p on a huge bottle of beer, I spend about 1.80 pounds on the smallest cocktail the world has ever seen - delicious!

We soon attract the attention of the drunk locals - who give us sunflower seeds as some sort of gift - thanks muchly people! We learnt some sort of drinking game with dice - which I found it particularly easy to cheat at since i couldn't understand the dude's rules! and then they had us up dancing, oh dear. I had to dance with some old chinese man who had less rythmn than the man playing the wok earlier on, and Amy got stuck being passed around about 4 different guys and gals. The chinese version (a man singing) holly valance's kiss kiss is on repeat!

We swap email addresses (so that we can show you the no doubt brilliant photos!) and then leave! The next morning I wouldn't say I was hungover but Amy did knock on the shower door in the morning and ask if I was planning on needing my towel?! Hmmm!

I ain't getting on no train!!

Ok, so when we last left you we were in Beijing and spent the day getting the website up and running........and a grand job we did to we think :) however, this meant we didnt leave ourselves much time to catch our first train out of Beijing to a small city known as Pingyao.

A quick trek to the bank first turned into a mini adventure with us carrying our life on our backs. I broke the cash machine - oops!! and had to have a quick chat with the chinese bank teller - not easy!!

Cash sorted - now all we needed was a taxi!! generally sticking your hand out at any available cab should work anywhere in the world but not so much this time round. we eventually flag one down - its 6.05pm, train leaves at 7pm and yep, we get stuck in a traffic jam!!

Stu - hope you are not laughing at us right now :) apparantly we dont learn from our old mistakes.

Pull up at the one of the biggest train stations I think I've seen and head off looking for the platform. We make it with 15mins to spare. oh yeah!!! we know what we're doing.

Erm, so how should we describe the train??? Another very bizarre experience. we've got two top bunks and there are two bunks below us each. Yep, we're 3 bunks high, its hot, no room to sit up - not much else to do but laugh. oh well, this is going to be home for the next 10 hours - estimated arrival time for Pingyao - 5.30 am - nice!!

I have vowed on the way to the train to pee myself before i set foot in the toilet - thankfully, this has not needed to be tested :)