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Well here we are at the end of our China experience- cant believe it has gone so quickly! After the initial culture shock, we felt that we have really settled in here and have loved every minute.
First stop was Beijing where we visited all the sights including the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace and of course the Great Wall- something we completely underestimated! We certainly were not expecting a 10km trek in the snow and Cath was definately not prepared wearing her non grip slip-on shoes (we lost count of the number of times she fell over!) We also had some hilarious nights out clubbing in our black wigs! A highlight was Cath getting the news that she was into St Andrew's Medical school -although we think we will have to celebrate that properly in Thailand!
The overnight 'hard-sleeper' train to Xian will not be forgotten! Cramped in a tiny room of 6 bunk beds with 3 other full grown Chinese men (one of whom slept talked and snored the entire night!) we set off on our 12 hour journey. After arriving exhausted in Xian we checked into our lovely 3 pound a night 4* hotel - a complete contrast to the previous night! Here we visited the Terracotta Army which was amazing and we found ourselves our first western- style restaurant- what a great pizza that was!
Chengdu, the home of the Giant Pandas was next. We got to tour the largest Panda breeding centre in the world, they were just gorgeous! The next day we got a two hour ride in a micro mini yellow banger car to the Leshan Great Buddha (lets just say we were very grateful to stretch our legs!) The largest Buddha in the world, set in a stunning location, certainly lived up to his name!
A short domestic flight later we arrived in Guilin where we only stayed the night (in another 4* hotel :)! ) before taking the stunning Li River boat cruise down to Yangshou. The small town proved to be our favourite place in China and a complete contrast to the major cities. We had such fun doing a Chinese cooking course and learning to make 5 traditional meals, followed by bike riding through the hills in the afternoon. A great day was followed by a 'not so great' night to say the least when we took the over-crowded smelly sleeper bus to Hong Kong! We were not amused by the dirty interior and loud club music pumping through the bus at 1am - it wasn't a great sleep!!
We are now in Hong Kong and staying with La's family friends. It is SO nice to have home comforts again!! Yesterday we spent the day wandering around the city and having lunch in Statue Square -we cant get over how civilized everything feels after China!
We are off to Bangkok today-absolutely exhausted after two hectic weeks! Bring on the Thai beaches! xx
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