16 hours on the cleanest overnight train EVER lands us in Chengdu, the home of Pandas and the capital of the Sichuan province known for it's spicy food! Our Tour Leader Tomic was having trouble getting us taxis to our hotel when we got off our train as it was too early for the police to be at the train station so the local taxi drivers were refusing to take us anywhere in favour of better fares - after 25 minutes of no luck Tomic decides that the only way we are...

Well, we only just about survived the overnight train journey - 12 hours this time and it wasn't a nice train! We had the top four bunks in a cabin of six and the two guys on the bottom bunks proceeded to chain smoke through the night and the toilets were a mess - YUK!!! But we're here now so it's all good! But life is all good now we are chilled in Xian, it's the home town of our guide and he loves it so harps on about it a lot. Dumpling dinner (Xian speciality...

5 hours on a private transfer bus (as opposed to 8 hurs by public bus) sees us into Pingyao... Pingyao seems a beautiful little walled city, it's buzzing at the moment as they are getting ready for an international photography fesitval, there's flyers and posters and artwork everywhere - brilliant!! Our hotel is very sweet - in a similar style to our lovely hotel in Beijing - all arranged around a courtyard where you can sit and drink tea. Everything is lit up...

So, we made it on the 8 hour overnight train from Beijing to Datong without needing to use the loo!!!!! phew! There isn't too muct to Datong, it's a massive coal mining area and you can smell the coal as soon as you step off the train - it's a really hard working city and it was great not to be in a really touristy area. We had a nice sort of chinese meat fondue and then went to see thousands of Buddhas which were over 2000 yars old and all carved by hand from...

Hello All, Well we are leaving Beijing tonight on the overnight train to Datong. We have had an awesome time here wandering around and seeing the sights. We have been to Tiananemen Square and seen the lowering of the flag at sunset and been up Tianenmen Gate (gate of Heavenly peace) for a birds eye view over the square, seen the Forbidden City along with half of the rest of China, eaten Moon cakes for the Chinese Moon day or Harvest fesitval, seen the Summer Pal...