Xi'an, 17th - 22nd October - After our manic journey, any place would have looked amazing but Xi'an really was. Debbie was there waiting for us when we strolled through the packed train station, huge packs on back and front, with a welcome banner for 'sissy, blondie and the pretty girl...' a long story but basically names we aopted in Beijing! Deb had already booked us into a hostel as she had arrived the night before - the 'Seven Sages Hostel, Xi'an'. Less then...

'That' train journey - 16th - 17th October. Qingdao - Xi'an - 'Hard sleeper' it cant be that... imagine sleeping in a zoo, and the animal side not the candy floss and paved paths side! we walked onto this train expecting something pretty bad and thats pretty much what greeted us haha na, it wasnt that bad, the beds were manageable althoug only 2 foot wide, stacked three bunks high and crammed 66 per carriage. The people would have been fine, if they hadn't const...

Qingdao - 13th - 16th October 5 whole hours we managed to blag a seat and table in the staff canteen in the end, quite an achievement I think, see, it pays to play the dumb English card every now and then! (works in Oz too eh dad?! Haha) So arriving in the coastal city of Qingdao (one if the main holiday destinations for the chinese) we get a taxi to our new hostel 'the old observatory' We had seen and heard some good things about the hostel from other travelle...

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'...