Halong Bay!!!

as part of our tour of SE asia we went to Halong Bay, there we joined with a boat that toured us around the islands... it was brilliant, we were served amazing food at every meal, we had crab, prawns and loads of different types of fish...

the weather was gorgeous, so we went for a swim in the water (we jumped off the top of the boats). A local came round on a small boat selling cold beer, so i bought one for 70p, then drank it while floating in the sea :).

the water was so warm, but at the same time refreshing, we climbed to a lookout point to get some amazing pictures, then went swimming again

Yangshou and Xiangping

Bamboo raft down the river Li

Moon cave - just outside of Yangshou

Meal in Xiangping

Yangshou

We spent 3 nights in Yangshou, the 'traveller's mecca' in China. We visited some caves with hot springs and mud pools - unfortunately no photos cos we (stupidly) didn't bring the camera - and met some people there who we went out to dinner with. Our mode of transport to the caves was fun - we got on the back of two mopeds (without helmets - they didn't think to provide them for driver or passenger) and zoomed off at about 40mph down the main road, dodging bicycles and buses. I was clinging on for dear life, but Nick really enjoyed it!

The next day, I went cycling in the morning with Sarah, Max, Harry and ____, (the people we met in the caves) whilst Nick had a lie-in. In the afternoon, we all went to Xiangping, which is a tiny village further down the river Li from Yangshou. We had lunch there (35p per meal!!) and experienced plumbing in the Chinese villages - simple is not the right word! It was a slit carved into the floor, into which the 'waste' ran out into the river. There wasn't even a door - there was just a low wall surrounding the 'slit', and it was in a back room. Interesting!! We then took bamboo rafts back up the river Li to Yangshou. It was idyllic - Nick, Max and Harry all fell asleep!

There are a lot of these limestone hills carved into the countryside surrounding Yangshou - quite similar to Halong Bay, but on land. It was my favourite place in China, because it wasn't a city!!

Hanoi

We are now in Vietnam! About halfway through our time in China, blogger.com was blocked so we were unable to update the blog - freedom of speech isn't encouraged in China! I will be doing a mass update in a few days, so this is just to say that we are starting our tour of SE Asia today. The link to the itinerary is: http://www.tucantravel.com/tour/best-of-south-east-asia/bxhs5/ and I have pasted a map with our route on too.

Kunming stone forest

'Loving each leaf here is the loving of yourself life'

After Beijing we flew to Kunming, a city in southern China. Here there is a famous Stone Forest, basically a collection of tall limestone columns created when China was underwater, thousands of years ago. Today it's like a land-based version on Halong Bay. We visited with Fiona and Steph, who we met that morning at breakfast (amaaazing banana pancakes!!). Whilst there, we got lots of requests from Chinese tourists for them to have their photo taken with us! There was also an amusing Chinglish sign that i included - it made me laugh. We spent a few days in Kunming, also visiting the Western hills (very similar to english countryside so I won't write anything about them). Had an interesting bus journey - the chinese don't seem to understand the concept of 'full'. Even when there were people hanging out the doors cos it was so crowded, the bus still stopped at the stops and people tried to get on. Crazy. Like there wasn't another bus on the same route coming about 3 minutes later...

Great Wall

So, when we were in Beijing we (obviously) had to visit the Great Wall!! There are various parts that you can visit - we went to Simitai, which is less touristy and is the original wall. I was amazed that there were so many steps!! Obviously the chinese countryside is all rolling hills, so i probably should have guessed...but the number of steps rivalled the Tongeriro crossing in NZ, where Steph and I nearly died of exhaustion!! It was really beautiful - one of my favourite things in China.

Forbidden CIty

This is a walled palace in the centre of Beijing, where the Emperor and his wives and concubines lived for most of the year. It is huge, and really ornate, with lots of passages and courtyards. We were accosted quite a bitoutside by chinese people telling us they were art students, and asking us to come and see their art gallery. We didn't take them up on this offer; we had been warned earlier at the hostel that this was a common scam. We then went for lunch, and found a DVD shop that sold (pirated) DVDs for 8 yuen (80p). Nick bought 18!

We have written tons of posts today, so you have to go down and click on 'older posts' at the bottom of the page - our first post today was 'Pandas!'

Teahouse with Ginny

It's Roz now, but you would probably notice anyway through the change in writing style. The computers here re really slow, so it's taken practically all day to upload photos! It is raining and cold outside though, so not a great waste.

Anyway, when we were in Beijing we met up with Ginny, who we'd met in Shanghai when we went out to lunch with Stephanie from the dematic office. She lives in BJ, but she travels a lot with her work (she's a bit like Dad in the dematic company I think) which is why she was in Shanghai. She took us out to lunch, where Nick ate fish eye and offal (I couldn't do it - I tried but had to spit it out) and then we went to the forbidden city. She then took us shopping, and bought me two lovely pairs of earrings, and I bought a dress. She then took us to an authentic chinese teahouse. The teahouse is a place for people to meet in the evening - a bit like a pub but no alcohol and more elegant. I had white tea; Nick had jasmine tea (that's the tea in the photo) and Ginny had chrysanthamum tea. There was also a shadow puppet play in the background. After the teahouse we went out to a couple of bars.

on our second day in Beijing we went to the summer palace, the emperors retreat, it was really cool, the architecture was amazing.

The Floating Teapot

Can anyone guess how this teapot stays up in the air?

Food in Beijing

right, here are some pictures of the various foods that we tried while in a restaurant in Beijing, the top item is a ducks head, roz ate the brain, the middle pictures shows sea cucumber, the most disgusting tasteless and rubbery thing anyone could ever eat, i honestly prefered eating fish guts... and the bottom picture is of pigs ears, they were really strange, really crunchy :P

and the pic

The Bird's Nest

While in Beijing we went to see the 2008 Olympic stadium, it was really cool, we were allowed to walk all over the track :P, the structure was absolutely amazing. This was on our day trip with Marshall Ma, one of my Uncle's work colleagues. He was amazingly kind, and wouldn't let us pay for anything, including our tickets into the stadium. He also helped us with our flights, as our credit cards wren't accepted.

More animals！

yes thats right，its an albino peacock。

Where we've been in China

I thought I would add a map with where we've been in China. We spent 4 days in Hong Kong, then took an overnight train to Shanghai (20 hrs). We spent another 4 days in Shanghai, then got another overnight train to Xi'an (16 hrs). We spent 5 days here then got an overnight train to Beijing (16 hrs). Our original plan was then to go back to Hong Kong by train (26 hrs). It would have been too expensive to fly, as the Chinese think of HK as a seperate country, therefore it would be an international flight. Anna, who we met in Xi'an, inspired us to scrap this plan and instead fly to Kunming (4 hrs). We will spend a few days here then take a train to Guilin, from where we'll take a train to Hanoi in Vietnam, wher our tour begins on the 25th May.

Pandas!

hey guys, its been a while since we posted anything, here are the pictures from our trip to the panda conservation project. the facility is owned by the foresting company, they collect the animals they find in the wild and protect them when their homes are destroyed.

while we were there we spoke to some of the carers, apparently the pandas favourite foods are apples and cake :P。

there are 5 young pandas in the zoo，apparently they can't be put back into wild because they are too lazy，once they get used to a regular feeding time they give up trying to feed themselves。

Cycling round the Xi'an wall

Nick and Cory

Cory, George and Nick

Anna and me

the view from the wall

Yesterday we spent the day with George and Cory (who we met on the terracotta warriors tour) and Anna. Xi'an is the only place in China with complete city walls, so we decided to cycle around them. We took turns on a tandem and 3 normal bikes. When we were about half way round, Cory's bike broke (they really weren't very good quality) and we had to wait for a replacement. At half past 11 with low supplies of water and no shade, this wasn't fun! However the replacement arrived and we continued. Nick and Cory were especially unbalanced on the tandem, whilst Anna and I made quite a good team. We then went out for lunch at a little Muslim place with huge portions and cheap prices - about 60p each for a huge plate of noodles and beef.

Interesting fact about the chinese children - they don't wear nappies. Instead their trousers had bum-holes, and their parents hold them over drains/facing trees when they need to go. Haven't seen any do a number two, but from what I've heard the drains are used for this as well...

Notice Mum - I am wearing a hat!!

Winter Palace

This is the winter palace used by many of the Emperors, as it is near hot springs. The water is full of minerals, so we all drank some! It was really beautiful there.

Terracotta Warriors, Xi'an

copies of the warriors

So we visited the terracotta warriors! We went in a tour group with two other guys, George and Cory. If you're interested in how they came about, look at wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terracotta_Army). It's not the full

story that we got, but it's enough to understand. Because the Emperor was crazy with power, he made exact replicas of all his bodyguards to be buried with him to protect him in the afterlife. These warriors are only a few of the sacrifices made, along with pots, precious stones and concubines who were buried alive. Each of the faces of the warriors is unique, as it is an exact copy. They haven't excavated the entire tomb yet, as the design is very complex, and there is mercury buried in it, which is poisonous. The chinese government a\have put a 100 year ban on anyone excavating the tomb, in the hope that technology will be advanced enough to preserve whatevers inside. Similarly, not all of the terracotta warriors have been uncovered, as they were painted in a special dye, which fades on contact with air, and they haven't yet developed a way to preserve the colours.