Hi everyone. I'm sitting in a little internet on top of a mountain in the Lonji Valley! It's a little bit crazy as we're in probably the most secluded place I have ever been to, literally in the middle of no where, and yet this cafe seems to have the best internet connection by far. OK, so my messages so far have been a little bit uninformative (is that a word). so I'll try and write a little bit more about what we've actually been up to. Which is a lot. I actually can't believe we've been away for almost three weeks now. Our tour has just been incredibly hectic since the first day we got here. A little bit too much travelling for my liking (we've spent about 6 days just moving from place to place so far), and it would have been nice to have a bit more time in some places, but on the whole, it has been amazing. And by the way, it is true what people say - unless you speak Mandarin, I wouldn't advise that anyone attempts China without a group unless you are really brave. Until you get as far south as Shanghai, no one speaks English (or French, or Spanish...). But luckily for us, we have Snow, our fantastic guide, who know's everything and is also so much fun. It's really funny - each time we reach our new destination we all say it's our favourite place, because every location is so amazing, but in completely different ways. Beijing was brilliant because it's such a buzzing city but so very different from any Western town I've seen (although it's apparently the 2nd dirtiest city in the world, after Mexico, and I really don't doubt it). The Great Wall - amazing. Just amazing. Look at the pictures. Xi'an was fantastic because of the culture - the Terracotta Warriors...I have no words to explain what it was like. Just crazy (and did you know that each of the 6,000 or so life size warriors they've found so far all have individual features, as they are replicas of real soldiers that ruled during Qing's time? He wanted his army buried with him when he died, but luckily was convinced that this was a silly idea. Although he did have every person that worked on his tomb buried with him (alive), in case they knew the codes for his booby traps.) Shanghai - was by far the most 'Western' place we've visited. Great shops, crazily big buildings, and lots of French people... Yangshuo - like a Spanish holiday village, only much, much better. Also the place where we went mud-caving: I'll hopefully get some pictures of that to post on the site soon. I can't really explain what it was like because it might sound a bit dodgy and I don't want STA to ban my site. It was a once in a life time experience though! Then we stayed in Chowlong, a tiny little village in the countryside, which was lovely and gave us the first chance to chill out, and now we're up in the mountains at this rice terrace, and it's the most beautiful place I've ever been. Again, wait for the photos. Had a 6 hour hike this morning, so most people are asleep right now, but crazy Katie fancied another walk after that, so me and Dani came up here for a drink and the net. So, I think that's about it really. We've got another walk tomorrow before heading off on another 20 hour journey to our final destination of the tour - Hong Kong. Really excited about that, especially cos we're going to Disney World! Will be sad leaving the group as we all get on so well, but looking forward to the next leg of the trip (Vietnam). Love to all.xxxxx p.s. Our Chinese sim is now dead. :-(