China Part 7 - Hainan Island:

After Hong Kong:

We left Hong Kong with the vague plan of heading for Vietnam, but we were still to early to meet up with Christiana and Richard. While on the train to Shenzen I was looking through the Lonely Planet when I remembered about a place that Simon had mentioned called Hainan. Apparently it is sometimes called “The Hawaii of Asia”, that was just what we needed so we booked our ticket to Ghangzhou, from where we could get a train to Hainan.

In Ghangahou we had no problems booking a sleeper train but it did leave us some time to spare so we had a look around the town. Its a bit of a strange place and has a lot of wholesale shopping outlets that seem to provide most of China with its cheap tourist tat. Both myself and Fran had commented that we had a strange feeling wandering around Ghangzhou (we only had small rucksacks on as we left our big bags in storage at a hotel) but we both thought at different points that someone had been following us. Just as we were getting back to the station I heard Fran shout out, I spun around to see her confronting a man whose hand she had caught in her rucksack only moments before – I started shouting at him to cause a scene, luckily we could see he didn't have time to get to any of her belongings and he made the wise decision of snaking away. Good on Fran for catching him in the act though! That was enough of Ghangzhou so we hid out in KFC until the train was ready to go.

Hainan Island:

As Hainan is an island the train to get there is rather special. We caught a regular sleeper train but when it arrived at the coast, they put the whole train on a ferry, which took it across the channel to the island, where it continued its journey! Only in China! It took most of the day to get around the island (its almost as big as the Northern part of Vietnam!) but we eventually arrived at the station, and got a taxi to Sanya. We were staying at Peters place – Blue Sky International Hostel, but we had a bit of trouble finding it. A few calls to Peter later and one of his staff met us and lead us to the hostel. It is a very friendly place only minutes away from the beach and Peter (his English name) the Chinese owner is a friendly, funny guy.

The beach in Sanya doesn't disappoint, with near white sand stretching out in front of an aqua-marine sea fronted by palm trees and sun loungers. The resort is packed with Russians, it is also growing in popularity with the Chinese who seem to think it is essential to dress as if you are in Hawaii, with matching shorts and shirt floral combinations! It does make you laugh to see whole family walking around in the same print. We spent our time sunbathing and relaxing, and eating great, cheap local food (Fran had lots of seafood). Unfortunately on only the second day I managed to nearly brake Fran's little toe when we were messing around on the beach, she spent the rest of the time hobbling around in pain. At the hostel we had met some great fun people and especially became great friends with 2 girls – Marlene from Germany and Astrid from Austria. We all hung around together most of the time.

Our original plan had been to stay on Hainan for maybe 3 or 4 days, but as it was so nice it became 5 or 6, then a Typhoon hit the island and we couldn't get a ferry so we ended up staying for over a week! I can think of worse places to get stuck though. There were a lot of friendly people staying at the hostel and one night Ian and Ping convinced half the hostel to go to a Karaoke bar! We had a great time singing for a few hours before moving to an odd dance club that had a spring loaded floor!

I have to cut into this story here and give you a bit of insight as to how good the food actually was here, it was not really Chinese food as we came to know it (all bones and no meat so to speak), it was varied, cheap, fresh and delicious. We had two favourite haunts, a local restaurant on a corner with plastic tables and chairs for furniture which you would not look twice at but for the hoards of locals eating there all the time. The second haunt was more touristy and was called the Summer Food Court which was a series of stalls selling fresh seafood and other goodies for such reasonable prices! Marlene, Astrid and I share a love of seafood and twice had huge seafood platters complete with crabs, sea snails, calamari, prawns the lot for only 60 yuan (about 6 quid!).

Our whole week was spent either eating, drinking or talking about food and although basically all we did was go to the beach, we will always remember Hainan as the place where we forged some great friendships. I really do think that when we look back on our travels, it's not just the places that spring to mind, but the great people that you meet! We are now keen to explore lots of places in Europe that we hadn't thought about visiting before simply because we have made some great friends who we want to make sure we meet up with again.

Next stop - Vietnam!

China Part 6 - Hong Kong & Maccau:

Hong Kong:

We caught our very first sleeper bus from Guilin to Shenzen, which is the departure point into Hong Kong. The experience was not a good one as firstly the horrible hostel workers in Guilin failed to tell us we could catch this bus from Yangshuo, so on the day in question we travelled the two hours back to Guilin, only to catch the bus back to Yangshuo before it continued on it's way! The bus drivers were on some kind of delivery racket which meant that we could not put our bags underneath in the storage compartment, and we had the seats on the floor at the back of the bus and the aisles soon got crammed with everyone's luggage. My seat was in the middle, was the smallest on the bus and was directly over the engine with no air con, bags on either side and I was feeling more than a little claustrophobic! I vowed I would never catch a sleeper bus again!

When we finally arrived the bus dropped us to the wrong part of town so we shared a cab to the train station with some nice English guys we met up with, one of which had a huge Chinese hat which he had bought as a souvenir for his dad. The thing was bigger than him, and he still managed to nearly leave it at the travellers bureau, luckily the girl ran after him to return it!
Hong Kong is a world apart from China in every single way, the trains were spotless and on time, we made our first faux paux when took to eating a snack lunch, wondering why everyone was staring at us, only to realise about two days later that eating is prohibited on the train! That afternoon we trailed around the famous HK cheap electronics stores and Karl bought me a camera for my birthday from Mr Li's store. Some sight seeing was in order so we wandered around the town and it's strange because there are so many westerner's who all speak English, the architecture is mostly modern with some old stuff thrown in there and you could easily imagine that you are walking around the back streets of London.

We had some hugely overpriced Kronenbourg 1664 in an Irish bar (which we had been missing terribly!) and then braved the outside of the Chongking Mansions looking for a curry house for dinner. The Mansions in a huge building with retail shops and restaurants, but not any conventional building you may be thinking of. Outside there are hoards of Indian guys fluttering their menu's in your face, and the second I took a cursory glance at one, all of them crowded round us offering us special prices on beers and food if we picked them. When we had selected one which we thought sounded good, we followed him up in the elevator and came out to what can only be described as a floor with flats which had been converted into restaurants. Anyone who watches Little Britain will know what I'm talking about; imagine the scene when Walliams comes home to find his Thai Bride has turned their flat into a Thai Restaurant! The food was good though and we had been longing for curry for a long time so we were satisfied!

If you're in HK and need some beach action, head out to Lama Island which is just a 40 minute boat ride away. You can catch the ferry to one side and head out of the other which allows a really nice walk across the island with some stunning views across the ocean to boot. The people on the island were all really friendly and relaxed and although we didn't test the water out it looked sparkly and blue and everyone was having a good time. That night we watched the famous HK light show in which about 20 large buildings across the river “perform” to music by showing off their high tec lasers and flashing neon lights for about 20 minutes, that was pretty cool but we thought it wasn't a patch on the great light and water show we watched in Xi-an, which surprised us as HK is so much more advanced in many ways.

We then decided to absorb some local culture by checking out the Fire Dragon dance festival in which loads of men light thousand of incense sticks and make the body and head of a dragon and then dance it through the streets. They also create huge fire balls and dance around with them. It was a real sight to behold and the locals were loving it but we were overwhelmed by the smell of the incense burning so only stuck around for half and hour or so.

Maccau:

The journey to Maccau takes around 1&½ hours by boat and although it is back on the China mainland it really does feel like you've travelled to Portugal (well what I imagine it to be like anyway!). It was colonised by the Portuguese for many years and they have their own currency and the religion is predominantly Catholic, which means there are some really nice churches to visit and the architecture is very interesting and quaint. The old fort which contains a fab museum all about Maccau's history was so well laid out we really enjoyed it as a refreshing change in comparison to stuffy old museums we had visited. Maccau is mostly known for it's casino's so we took a cursory look around one of the original ones which was all gilded gold and retro chandeliers and mosaics, to be honest the décor made us both want to puke so we just looked around and then used a free shuttle to get back to the ferry dock! It would have been nice to check out the bigger newer casinos on the other side of the bridge but we couldn't really afford to play any tables so we thought better of leading ourselves into temptation and got the ferry back reasonably early.

China part 5 - Guilin and Yangshuo:

Guilin:

We had taken our longest train to date – 18 hours! But it is amazing how quickly you seem to adjust to these things, it seemed to pass relatively quickly. Just before arriving in Guilin we noticed the landscape changing, instead of rice paddies we were seeing sharply pointed hills dotted around the landscape. This is the area that a lot of people imagine when they think of China, the limestone hills covered in greenery, and here it was laid out in front of us ready to be explored. Guilin itself is a nice little town and has a lot to offer, but unfortunately it seems that someone has realised this and anything that is even remotely touristy has an (overpriced) entrance fee, be it a park, hill shaped like an elephant, or peak that overlooks the town. We did part with some of our hard earned cash but the sights just didn't seem to be value for money, rumour was that Yangshuo 2 hours South is the place to be, so we booked our ticket. The evening before we left redeemed Guilin slightly as we had a nice time wandering the night market and then the tastefully lit lakes.

Yangshuo:


A short bus ride and we were in the small town of Yangshuo. The friendly staff from the guesthouse we had booked came to meet us at the bus station. They were really helpful with any questions we had and sorted out our first excursion – a bamboo boat ride from Xing Ping. We had to get a small local bus to get there over bumpy unmade roads past paddie fields and farmers. Our starting point for the boat ride was a famous Chinese spot, as featured on the back of a Y20 note! The bamboo boat turned out to be made of plastic but we didn't let that take anything away from the incredible landscape sprawled in front of us. It was so peaceful and serene, again our timing was good as on the return journey the sun was setting behind the limestone peaks. This was the China I had dreamt of seeing!

That evening we took to West Street, a backpacker haven of bars, restaurants and clubs that doesn't quite fit with the peaceful setting of Yangshuo. While wandering around we met an Israeli called Asaf who joined us for beers. The following day he came to our hotel so we could all go for a bike ride, at this point we were also joined by a guy we had briefly bumped into the night before, Simon from Ireland. So the 4 of us set off out of town into the dirt tracks between paddie fields and limestone peaks. It was nice to be back with nature after so many big Chinese cities, water buffalo wading the rivers, local farmers going about their business, and butterflies fluttering about. Fran and I both picked up punctures on the unmade road, but luckily there was a friendly Chinese man in his shack doing repairs. While waiting for him to fix the punctures we walked to the river and had a swim in the refreshing blue waters. What a great way to spend a day!

While in Yangshuo we also went to a show that is directed by the same man that put together the opening ceremony for the Olympics, the stage is the river that runs through the town and while parts of the show were impressive the time between scenes while they moved around the boats was a bit much. Fran also took a cookery lesson with Nancy from Hong Kong whom we had eaten with the night before, so you can all look forward to home made Kung Po chicken, spring rolls and beef noodles when we get back! Unfortunately we had booked our onward bus journey while we were in Guilin, otherwise we may well have stayed in Yangshuo for longer as there was still much to do and see.

China Part 4 - Fran's Birthday:

Chengdu:

When we had booked our overnight train from Xi'an to Chengdu there had been 3 options, we went for the cheapest which had times to suit us. While waiting in the communal area of the hostel we got chatting to another guy who was getting the same train, Frank from New Zealand. We spent so long talking that we almost missed the train due to the chaos at Xi'an train station (this is normal in China at the moment, as the Olympics were on they x-ray every item of baggage, which leads to horrendous queues entering the station). Once we had boarded the train we suddenly realised why the tickets were cheaper – no air con! Well it was only 30 degrees outside, still it was a better option than the train we got to Pingyao!

Karl pretended all the way there that we were staying in a 6 person dorm, so imagine my surprise when we pulled up outside this plush hotel in the centre of town! This was my first birthday surprise, and it was still a whole day before my actual birthday. Our room was pure luxury and we enjoyed it immensely after having been in dorms for a while! We mooched around town and bumped into Frank again randomly in the square, and that evening Karl told me to put on a dress cos we were going out somewhere! Yippee another surprise for me! He took us to the Chinese Opera which was a real treat. They have all sorts of performers doing various things, like playing with fire, spinning plates, a hand shadow show, puppets and a changing masks performance which was really cool.

The next day dawned bright and early for us as we had a full day planned, whilst I was getting ready Karl read out all my birthday messages from everyone and made me nearly cry – thank you to everyone who wrote to me, it was so lovely to hear from you all especially as I was so far from home and missing everyone, it was very much appreciated! We caught the bus to the Panda Conservation Centre, yes we saw real life Panda's! They were so cute but smaller than we had imagined they would actually be. There is even a nursery on site so we saw mini baby panda's being looked after by the carers. Panda mummies are not actually that maternal and it takes them a few goes to know what to do with their babies, which is one of the reasons the Panda population is dwindling (that and deforestation of their natural bamboo habitat). Also did you know that Panda's actually have to fancy each other before they will contemplate getting it on?! They are a seriously strange creature. We watched them eating their bamboo and lazing around in their enclosures it was a very special experience, one which we will always remember!

When we got back to the hotel we chilled out for a while and then my next last surprise came in the form of a beautiful bunch of lilies and roses (my favourites!). They were really gorgeous and this a a funny tale; that morning whilst we were leaving the hotel, I saw those flowers and commented to the guy that they were beautiful and nearly asked him jokingly if they were for me as it was my birthday but we were crossing the road at that moment! We did laugh!

That night we went out for a nice Mexican and a bottle of wine with Frank and ended up having a few drinks at Hooters, that was random! All in all it was a really nice birthday and well worth the extra 30 hours on the train we endured to get there and away! Karl did a fantastic job with the surprises which is not easy since we spend virtually every minute of the day with one another!

This is the story of the day which we nearly didn't get to see the Buddha, and nearly missed the train! We arranged to meet up with Frank at 12pm at the bus station to go 2 hours away to view the worlds tallest standing Buddha in Leshan. What we hadn't realised is that once we arrived to the town, we would have to travel an extra distance to get to the blooming thing! We were running out of time as our overnight train was leaving from Chengdu to Guilin at 7pm, we consulted our bible the lonely planet and it said we could catch a local ferry to an island which overlooks the Buddha, and it only cost 1yuan (that's about 10p). The “ferry” was in fact a rickety rusty pontoon with a motor and packed full of local people, which was a real experience in itself! After ingesting goodness knows how many petrol fumes, we arrived at the little island, quickly walked to the peninsula to take a picture of the Buddha and caught the ferry back straight away. The view of the Buddha was hazy (so much pollution in China visibility is not always that good!), but it was very tall and hewn into the side of a cliff so it's quite imposing. On the bus back, we got caught in the rush hour traffic which delayed us and we were cursing ourselves for undertaking a trip so far away on a day we were supposed to be leaving town! We finally made it to the bus station but needed to get back to the hotel to pick up our bags before getting to the train station. There was not a cab available so we ended up running all the way back to the hotel which was a good two miles away, arriving hot and sweaty we piled in the door to snatch our bags and then begged the people in the queue for the taxi's to let us go first. I think one look at our ticket and realising how late we were was all that was needed and the taxi driver drove like a bat out of hell to get us there in time, which we eventually did! Phew!

China Part 3 - Pingyao & Xi'an:

Pingyao (and getting there!):

Most travellers have never heard of Pingyao as it's a tiny little town in between Beijing and Xi'an with not much going on, but we heard it was a really cool place to relax in so off we went. Unfortunately we were unable to bag hard sleeper tickets on the train and could only get seated, for an overnight journey of about 10 hours this is not ideal. So imagine this, when all the seats are filled up, they proceed to sell people standing tickets and so the train was overcrowded with half of china blocking the aisles, ladies holding babies and huge laundry bags full of goodness knows what all over the place. We were stuck in the middle of all this chaos and when 4am came round and the conductor shouted “Pingyao” it was a frenzied rush to try to get our backpacks from underneath the seats and get to the door. Nobody moved out of the way and the door was blocked by about 6 people lying or sitting in front of it and by the time we finally got there the guy said it was too late and we had to get off at the next town!!! Luckily there was an English speaking girl on the train who explained this to us, and said the next town was only 20 mins away which was a relief because sometimes the train doesn't stop for hours!

We finally got off the stinky train and found a nice taxi driver to take us back to Pingyao. The only thing was that it took over an hour to find our hostel as the town has old style tiny streets made for carts not cars and he didn't have a clue how to get around it! An old lady picking up plastic bottles helped us in the end, but when finally reaching our destination we found that the hostel was fully closed up and everyone had gone back to bed (they were picking us up at the station had we got off the train!). So we sat on the doorstep like two vagabonds and watched the little town slowly coming to life and the sun rising over the the rooftops. Little old ladies were up and about first, going to the market to buy their vegetables and stretching and exercising. It was cool actually looking back but at the time we were just cold and exhausted!

Our hostel was in a building constructed for the Emperor when he was coming to visit (which in the end he didn't) so it was quite plush in an old sort of way! We had an old style bed made of bricks and period furniture, and it was accessed through a little courtyard, it was just lovely.

Pingyao has retained it's old city wall and we enjoyed walking on part of it. All the buildings within the city wall have been maintained in the old period style and we watched the smoke curling out of the little chimneys and spied on people going about their daily routine. We watched the sun setting from our high vantage point and it was all very romantic! You can go into many of the buildings which have been converted into museums describing what their use was such as the prison, bank (Pingyao was where the first currency was used), important peoples houses etc so we had fun poking around the dusty little town for a few days. When we decided it was time to leave we were told that lots of students were going back to college due to (another) Chinese holiday so there were no bus tickets left! We only got stuck for an extra 2 days and when we finally got a ticket it was at an inflated price because they were in such high demand! That is China all over, where there's a profit to made, you can bet it will be!

Xi'an:

Having finally escaped from the quaint Pingyao we found ourselves back in a large city. Xi'an is a big place as has all the usual hustle and bustle associated with a large Chinese city. The main attraction here of course is Emperor Qin's Army of Terracotta Warriors. Its hard to know what to expect from this well known tourist attraction, but one thing I hadn't considered was the size of the pits and the number of warriors. Other than the outdated introductory video (which could desperately use a revamp) the site is presented very well, getting close to some of the warriors and having a close look at the detail of the faces and bodies really brings them to life. All the warriors on display have been painstaking reconstructed as they were damaged either by looting or the roof collapsing, to try and imagine them as they were originally with colour and all standing in formation just blows your mind. There are still a lot to be reconstructed and also other pits to be uncovered but they are trying to find a way to unearth them without the sunlight bleaching their colours.

Surrounding the city is the ancient city wall, but don't let its age fool you, it is by no means modest. It protects a large part of the city and stands as high as most buildings and almost as wide. Walking around the top you get a view over the city's rooftops and can watch life on the streets far below. We also visited the centrally located Bell Tower, an ornate building in the centre of a crossroads. We were lucky as we got to see a traditional Chinese musical performance, with instruments of the olden days. We spent one evening visiting the Big Goose Pagoda, where at 9:00 every night they put on a fabulous light and water show, complete with 'Jingle Bells'! The show was spectacular and on a par with Disney shows I have seen, it certainly draws a crowd and you have to push to get a decent view.

China Part 2: Beijing

A great time in a great city:

Apart from the chaos at the train stations in Shanghai and Beijing the journey on the overnight train (10 hours) was almost enjoyable! Beijing was literally a breath of fresh air after Shanghai, namely due to the effort they had put in to reduce pollution for the Olympics, you could actually see the sun in the sky and buildings that were more than 100 meters away. Even though the Olympics had officially finished the town was still in full Olympic mode and on its best behaviour. Rumour has it that the residents of Beijing were given strict instructions of do's and don'ts including: no spitting, no begging, no wearing white socks with black trousers, and to smile at tourists, just some of the funny ones we heard. Visiting the Olympic village was a strange experience, to see the crazy styling of the Birds Nest and the Water Cube in the flesh (although you can't get that close!) makes you realise how much time, effort and money the Chinese put into the Olympics.

Our adventures took us to various temples and palaces including Lama Temple, which is a great example of Chinese Temple building at its best. The main building even holds a huge 27m giant standing Buddha carved out of a single piece of wood, which is quite a sight. We also visited the majestic Forbidden City, which for years was only accessible to Royalty and not meer peasants like ourselves! Tienanmen Square just outside of the Forbidden City is a strange mix, with more security cameras and undercover police than you can count – awaiting the revolution maybe? The Summer Palace was a highlight and is a must see in Beijing, it was built as a present to the Emperor's mother for her birthday, what a gift indeed! It encompasses a huge man made lake and numerous temples and shrines.

We were in a bit of a quandary as to how we were going to visit the Great Wall, there were plenty of tours on offer but they did seem pricey. After some advice from fellow backpackers we decided on visiting the stretch between Jing San Ling and Simatai, by ourselves, without the aid of a tour group. It meant getting a bus to another town, then a taxi to the wall. The bus journey was fine apart from the taxi drivers trying to pry us off before the final stop so that they could charge us an inflated sum to take us the rest of the way. We resisted and got off in the correct place to be confronted by 20 or more cab drivers all screaming for our trade. While negotiating a price we were found by a friendly guy from Spain called Poli who was also going to the wall, so we pretended to know each other so we could split the fare, much to the annoyance of all the other cab drivers who realised they were going to miss out. A fight almost broke out as they tried to stop us getting in a cab together and one of the other drivers tried to steal our keys!

We eventually made it to the wall having picked up a girl (Katie from the USA) on the way who was walking! So the four of us set off in the glorious sunshine and in no time found ourselves standing on one of the most incredible structures to be built by human hands. It was an extremely surreal feeling to look in each direction, to see the wall snaking across the hills and thinking of the history of how it was built, and what the Mongol's must have thought when they first saw it! This section of the wall is less visited, other than a handful of other tourists the only people about were locals trying to make a few Yen selling water, beers and souvenirs. It took us about 4 hours to trek the 10km, past parts of the walls that were nearly ruined, you had to dismount from the wall and skirt around the edge of the crumbling mess, but mostly it was in good condition. Near the end you must cross a rickety bridge across a gorge over a river, before taking a zip wire over the lake – what a great end!

No visit to Beijing would be complete without eating at the infamous Wanfujing Street market. You can buy a vast array of land and sea creatures, on a stick, deep fried. We joined a couple of Hungarian guys (Gabor and Andras) we met at the hostel, first of all we walked along to see what was on offer and whet our taste buds. Some of the different culinary delights included: Scorpions, starfish, silk worm larvae, bulls penis, sheep's testicles and I heard someone mention dog. Andras decided to try some snake, he said it was ok so Fran and I tucked in as well. We then tried some crickets, a centipede and Fran finished off with some Seahorses (yes that is Seahorses, 3 of the little fellas, and she claims to still regret it!). I have to say that nothing I tried was particularly nasty in taste or texture, but I wouldn't go out of my way to eat any of it again either!

Our last night in Beijing was spent with new friends from the hostel, Johannes twisted my arm into going out for a few drinks so we visited the area by a lake that is packed to the rafters with bars and clubs, many with live music spilling onto the streets. Being backpackers the cheapest option was to buy beers from a street vendor and soak up the ambience as we walked around. We finished the night with 2 for 1 cocktails in a bar, where we learnt a new dice game that the Chinese go crazy for!

Overall our experience of Beijing was very memorable, we would definitely recommend a visit as it is a beautiful and exciting city, which retains its historic integrity whilst also embracing the future and making tourists feel a part of it all.

Our first taste of China...

Arriving in Shanghai:

Coming to China from Japan is a massive culture shock, even more so if your first stop is Shanghai. The culture and psyche here are a world apart from that of the Japanese and you can feel it from the first time you step off the plane. Coming from the quiet, reserved, clean world of the Japanese into the loud, bustling, booming world of the Chinese is an incredible contrast. There can't be many other neighbouring countries with so vast differences. The populous here are very forward (even though English isn't very widely spoken) and not afraid to ask for a picture with the 'crazy' different looking Westerners.

Our first notable Shanghai experience was trying to get to the hotel we had booked. We had the name and address (but not in Chinese), we decided to get a taxi from the Maglev station (400+ km/h magnetic levitation train - cool!) as we weren't familiar with the town. The taxi driver started heading in vaguely the right direction before shouting at us in Chinese as he didn't know exactly where we wanted to go! Eventually we managed to direct him using the poor map in the Lonely Planet, but I wish I knew what he was shouting at us!

Shanghai is a city undergoing massive change due to the amount of money pouring into China, everywhere you look there is either newly constructed skyscrapers or building sites. The pollution is a huge issue though as even on sunny days you cannot see the sun but just the grey haze hanging chokingly over the city. The buildings around the Bund are a sight to behold, and some of the most modern and interesting architecture I have seen. The beggars and street vendors however are a pain, women holding small children and tugging your clothing repeating “money, money” remind you of the vast gap that exists in China between wealthy and poor.

Our highlights of Shanghai were the Yuyuan Gardens and bazaar, a crazy world complete with loud street vendors waiting to haggle and serene landscaped gardens hidden away from the bustle; the French Concession with its swanky and trendy bars and café's, and the incredible show Era which left us with jaws hanging open in awe of the strength and balance of the performers.

Our next stop was to be Beijing, just days after the Olympics finished. Rumours from other travellers were that the city had undergone a massive facelift and was trying hard to impress.

Shanghai in pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/phase_k/tags/shanghai/