People, people everywhere!!

Dear diary ...So we survived another trip with Possum to the airport and caught our flight to Shanghai. Shanghai had a very diferent feel - it is bigger faster and there are alot more people than we have seen in any other place in China/the world!!!We have been lucky to have stayed our 10 days in Shanghai with Li in his living room - a huge saving on the bank account which when you are travelling is very much appreciated! It's always nice to hang out with kiwis and get some local city insight.As most of you will know the world expo is on here and it has taken over the city. There are posters, signs, gardens and vehicles all plastered with expo info. The locals are a but sick of it but it was an awesome opportunity for us! We splashed out and got a 3 day pass each and on this we managed to cover 32 exhibitions! The queues were long, not many foreigners and we got stared at alot but gosh it was worth it. There was lots of info about how each country is aiming to become greener. How they will produce energy in the future and how this will affect their country. The rest seemed to be all warm and fluffy to get you excited to travel to or live in their country - it certainly worked for us and we are now trying to work out how to fit some extra places into our itinerary!The pavillions were huge with the whole expo being over 5km squared, needless to say we did alot of walking in the twelve hours we spent there each day! Each country told their story differently with anything from revolving 360degree movies and gondola rides to food, art, coffee and at the nz pavillion a kauri log carving in action.The rest of our time was spent at the textile, glasses and fake markets! It is amazing what you can buy and get made in a short space of time! We are fitted out for our wedding! Let's hope we like it all when we get home in a year since it was too heavy to carry we have posted it all!!On our last day we also managed to sneak up to the 54th floor of the hyatt in Pudong to check out the skyline - incredible!! (we were hanging out with people turning up to an Audi convention - we don't think they noticed us in our sneakers with backpacks!)That is all from Shanghai - have just arrived in Beijing via bullet train so will write more soon.McduffMichele & Tristan

Xian & Mt Hua Shan

Photos:

The Cable Car

The top of Hua Shan

Possums Car!

The Stairs on Mt Hua Shan

Mt Hua Shan

The Teracotta Army

Looking Across the Peaks

Dear Diary,

We have our things packed and today we fly from Xian to Shanghai. Xian has been our home for the last week (big thanks to the Macleans for having us) and is full with old sites to see so we have managed to jam plenty into our time here.

The first few days were based around the city centre, one of the local kiwis joined us and we checked out the bell & drum towers and the highlight a 17km bike around the city walls. We might just point out this was completed on a tandom bike! For those of you that have riden a bike in China you will understand that inflated tyres, brakes, and a straight set of handle bars, are something you can only dream of... So with a possible penalty of a fine for returning the bike in any time over 100 minutes its fair to say that we are seasoned pros on the tandom, speed site seeing and plenty of local beer was required at the finish point - cheers for a good day Bruce!

The main highlight for our time in Xian (and quite possibly a trip highlight to date) was our trip this on Monday. We booked a driver, who proudly collected us at 8am in a suzuki with no english and we set out for the Terricota warriors. An hour later we arrived and our driver was named ''possum'' as we had shot in and out of lanes, roads, between trucks and im pretty sure he got some sweet air over some road works at one point! A couple of hours got us through the warriors, the attached photos dont really do the place justice, incredible to be able to see things 1000's of years old, and we agree with the sign at the gate - the 8th wonder of the world!

Next stop was Mt Hua Shan, we had read a little about this place and decided it was our oppurtunity to climb a mountain. So possum dropped us at the base and we started our climb thinking we would go a couple of hours and set up camp for the night. The real difficulty with these places is the language barrier, as there are no engligh signs, people, or anything!! So after a good few hours of walking and the tempreature finaly dropping to below 25 we decided we would continue into the evening and head for the top hotel. This really was amazing. The hill got so steep at times that we had to grasp the rusty chains that were on the rocks beside us and hope like heck that we didnt topple over with our bags on! The steps were short (not deep enough for westerner size feet!) and there weren't any barriers but we made it safely to the peak early eveining - this being 1650m above sea level. After getting the token photo we opted for the cable car down the otherside and returned back to Xian the next day by public bus - very cool.

So with plenty more smiles lets see what Shanghai has to offer.

McDuff

Tristan & Michele

ooo Photos

Some new panda mates - Chengdu

Happy we managed to order something from a menu with no pictures (note the pale of rice!)

Top of the rice fields - Longshen (near Guillin)

Longshen village - (Near Guillin)

Top of Fubo Hill Guillin

Twin Lakes at Guillin

Our first overnight train experience - top bunks in a hard sleeper

Macau - overlooking the city

Dear Diary,

We have finally managed to find a place we can add some photos. We are currently in Xian China checking out the warriors and we are scheduled to climb Hua Shan in a couple of days, we will give a full update soon!

McDuff

Panda Park

Dear diary...Sorry its been a week but i am getting used to life as a traveller and forgot that i still had some responsibilities and that it was my turn to write!There are alot of people in China and they all like to push, shove and hurry everywhere! It is survival of the fittest in every aspect of life with our worst experiences being when trying to get onto public transport or buy food at a stall on the street. To get from Guilin to Chengdu (where i write this from) we splashed out and caught a flight. Our flight was scheduled for 2350 but was almost an hour and a half late to leave. When boarding began (as if people thought the plane would leave sooner) people were elbowing and pushing to try and get their ticket beeped. When we got to our seats that were near the front of the plane another couple had decided to sit in them just because they were near the front! Does no one else notice that there are allocated seats on a plane?? It is also rather commical asking them to move when the only thing we can say in Chinese is hullo and thank you!The best way to describe a public bus is to think of a can of sardines. When the bus comes to the stop everyone runs to the door and shoves to get on. The driver yells what we think to be move back and they just keep jamming people on until they can only just shut the doors and arms and bags are getting stuck! There is no such thing as a personal space bubble!Chengdu is a neat place with our highlight being spending a day at a panda research base. About 10km from the city is the biggest panda reasearch base and park in the world. It was incredible to get there early and see them munch on kilos of bamboo and then slump around because they were so full. The park alone was beautiful with real grass and trees! We also got to look in the nursery, research centre and kitchen which was interesting. Would have loved to have held one but at $250NZ it was way out of budget!While we have been here we have also visited some temples, peoples park, the tibetan quater of the city, seen the sichuan opera (more acrobats than singing thank goodness!) and done a cooking class that we produced so much food we could hardly more after trying to eat it all!Tomorrow we are taking on our next overnight train to head to X'ian to stay with some Kiwis (from Levin) who teach at an international school and to see the Terracota Warriors. We have opted for a first class carriage on the train this time so will be interesting to see what it is like.McDuffMichele and Tristan