Tai'an (Taishan) - 11th - 13th October After a hard 2 days in taishan, we're finally leaving what I think will be the hardes place that I will travel on our whole trip. Its like no-where ive been before, ive never felt so alienated in all my life. I cant begin to explain what its like, though the best picture I can paint for you is to imagine 'china town' in London, meets oxford street, meets a car boot sale! It's a huge city and almost as if the entire populat...

Rented bikes again today to go and explore the city some more, me, Az, smera and Debbie hit the road and only got about 500yards down the road before finding a restaurant that we quite fancied and stopped for brunch! Haha had some typical Chinese food which was so feckin nice! Mastered the chop stick skills on various meat noodle and rice dishes ( spent a lot of time laughing at az struggling with his) all eaten at the side if the road next to our bikes and didn'...

Get a nice lie in after being kept up by a hilarious Debbie chatting on all night, this girl is mental but brilliant and more of a man than me and az put together haha! Head out on the subway to visit the sunshine palace, which was the last place that the last emperor visited i think! and pick up some street food on the way which was a big pot of noodles mixed with random sauces and vegetables and peanuts for 40p :) the sunshine palace was amazing and incredibly ...

Hired push bikes out today for a ride around the city, one if the best most exhilarating rides of my life! Me az and smera went with our new found companion, after annaliese's unexpected, unexplained departure - debbie the machine! Haha she flew to china and brought a bike and paniers/ saddle bags etc to cycle through the country so wanted to try out her new bike ( she already has a tent, sleeping bag and stove etc having just come from spending 2 months trekking...

Up early today as headed off to the great wall of china, got a good nights sleep in preparation so feeling fresh and get breakfast in the hostel before leaving. It's a 2 hour bus to the wall and typically I end up sitting on a broken chair, the back falls completely flat every time I try to lean back which is lovely And all of a sudden the nice relaxing early morning drive through china with my iPod that I had planned, was turned into an awkward drive spent sitti...