Awoken early by chatty Chinese man shouting at his chums down the corridor, so we an executive decision and shut him out so we can go back to sleep. Eventually make it to shanghai (asking the conductor at each stop whether we should get off - dont want a repeat of yesterday), and into a taxi.  In fact, Shanghai in general makes a good first impression...theres a proper taxi rank, they speak English, and they know exactly where to take us. A+ for Shanghai so far...

Another hilarious day in China. The rain has stopped, the smog has lifted and the temperature has soared! Feels like having a hair dryer being constantly blown on your face, or like you've stuck your head in the oven or like you're an egg frying on the surface of the sun. Early start as we had to get a taxi to the train station- it's a little out of town, newly built in futuristic style, and like all things Chinese, surpasses expectations. Think LHR terminal fiv...

Giant panda tour today. Chinese man (whom I shall now call Mr.Panda), picks us up with the rest of the group, at 7am. He's in a bit of a hurry. Little concerned that this panda "sanctuary" could be more of a zoo than a sanctuary, but the reviews online are good and it's approved by the WWF so fingers crossed. Did actually see several lovely pandas up really close, doing their panda thing. Nice big enclosures, lots of bamboo chewing and lolloping around yawning. ...

It's raining in xi'an. And our 4kg of laundry will only be ready by this afternoon "depending on the weather". Let's hope that it brightens up or neither of us have any clean clothes! Terracotta tour today and within te first 10 minutes we reasiled how glad we are we have not been on a tour for anythig else. After introducing ourselves in a cilla-black-esque what's your name and where do you come from method, we are told about all 4 types of warrior(archer, hors...

Arrived in Xian after a night on a "soft sleeper" this time...realised what we had been missing out on..namely, a door, curtains, and air conditioning. Much better, and much better sleep! Bit underwhelmed by Xian to begin with, particularly as taxi drivers actively turn us down for a lift so we have to trek across town complete with rucksacks, having spent two nights now sleeping on trains...fairly desperate to get to our hotel, but we made it ev...