China is everything you expect of it and more. The transport system is great. There are heaps of flights and they are realitively cheap. Planes seem to park all over the place and you either walk or, usually, take a bus to the terminal. The anouncements are usually made in chinese and english but the english only resembles english and you cant understand them. I found myself walking around with ticket in hand til someone pointed the way. Trains are slow but cheap...

I arrived at 4pm and went straight to the Qinibagh Hotel. It is in the old British embasy complex. Posh building in the front and backpackers in the back. It is an old 3 star hotel they have let run down a little but it is still OK and it is close to all the sights. It also doubles as a brothel. After checking in I went for a walk to get the lay of the land and check out something for dinner. There are heaps of places around here cooking meat on a stick so I wil...

The busses in this part seem to be run by the Afghans. I suppose after Kashgar is only Pakistan and Afghanistan. You can only buy tickets on the day. Busses start to leave about 10.30 and leave when they are full. My ticket cost 238y for a bottom bunk. They are all bunks and you cant sit up at all, maybe in the middle cos there is a little more height there. my bus was 14.00 but re-scheduled to 15.20 and we left at 16.10. You are not allowed to wear shoes on the ...

Wul-um-u-chee.... I dont know why but that is how they say it. Something about it being the old name but with new spelling? Urumqi's only claim to fame is it is the furtherest city in the world from an ocean. (2250km) The place is known as a s***hole in Bumcrack North West China and there is no reason to come here except to get a visa. Home to 2.5mil. The flight here was Ok. For about the last 45 min you fly up a valley of the Tian Shan mountains so I was lucky, ...

Last night half a dozen of us from the hostel went to the Big Goose Pagoda. I dont know, something about a goose flying and its head fell off and landed here, I wasnt listening that close. Any way they have a fountain show every night with music and lights and water fountains . The fountain area is about 250mtr bt 50 mtr so it is huge and we were able to get right in amongst it. The photos probably wont do it justice maybe shoulda had a video. Today I walked the ...