Hello from Shanghai! Today has been mostly spent on a coach as we left Hangzhou this morning. We arrived at Wuzhen water village at lunchtime and had most of the afternoon to explore. Its hard to explain what the village is like without showing some photos but it's kinda like a mini venice but with wooden houses. Its mainly a tourist attraction now but there is still village life there. We walked through the village, cobbled street and you can see people cra...

Hello again, Up in the middle of the night (5am) to catch our flight to Hangzhou. Check in was fab, we had a desk to ourselves then private security as well - felt like VIPs. I'd never heard of Hainan Airways before but the flight was good. Unlimited drinks then a breakfast consisting of cucumber dish, chicken noodles or fried rice, and a packet of crackers. The flight took around two hours then bused to our hotel. The hotel is a lot nicer than the last one, goo...

Hello from Xian! Travelled here by sleeper train which took 12 hours overnight from Beijing. The train station was massive and sooo busy, there were so many people pushing and shoving to get in. We got on the train and were in cabins of 6 beds. The cabins were tiny! I was in the middle bunk. Had pot noodles for dinner then it was lights out at 10.30pm. Slept ok surprisingly but woke early to the sound of Chinese folk hocking up on the way to the washroom. ...

Today we went with Marcia to the Forbidden City and Tianamen Square. I wasnt that keen on the Forbidden City as it was mostly concrete with pagoda buildings, no plants, greenery or flowers so it seemed a bit bare in comparison to some of the other sights. At the exit was a garden area which was the only nice part of it. After the Forbidden City we had our free time so Gail went back to the silk market with the girls and I went to see the Olympic Park with and ...

Last night we met the group. Marcia is our tour leader who is a bit bonkers. There's an older couple Frank & Ellie, a family of 4 (the dad is a director for Gap Adventures), Georgina from Brighton, a couple from Switzerland, Joanna from Canada, Nick and Philip from USA. We went for Peking Duck dinner to get to know each other. The group seem nice, good mix. We ate masses of food, best duck pancakes I've ever had - it was lovely. We also tried Nanjing beer whi...