We awoke at 9.00am in order to prepare for our journey from Shanghai to Hong Kong. We packed up and tried to tidy Jeni's flat, a job not suited to four untidy, scruffy traveler boys - a terrible effort was made. A visit to the shop was required to make some travelling purchases. Just before we stepped out of the door the heavens opened, by the end of the walk to the shops and back we were soaked and the plans had changed. We decided to get a taxi to the station, a big risk due to traffic, but dryer than walking to the underground station and getting the tube. We arrived at the station with half an hour to spare and boarded the train. The train journey was uneventful, except for Chops having to finish 'War and Peace' in the dark with the help of Big Dave's torch, the marathon book read was finally over, 2 months after its start. Chops put the book down with a worried expression on his face. How is he going to look intellectual now?

We arrived in Guang Zhou at 12 noon the following day and quickly made our way to the China Hotel, where we caught the bus to Hong Kong. The bus journey was uneventful, except for having to get on and off the bus at least 20 times with all our bags to get through customs, well 2 times. After arriving in Hong Kong we got the tube to the cheap area, which wasn't all that cheap. We found a crappy room in the Mirandor Mansions for six pounds a night, it wasn't pleasant, but it was a bed. That evening was spent overlooking the harbour area, the view is fantastic, with all the neon lights shining from the buildings and reflecting in the water. There we met a Phillipino girl, at first we thought she was on the game, then she told us she was a nanny, much to Little Dave's relief, as she had taken a bit of a shine to him. She turned out to be a little nuts, but that will be explained at a later date, possibly, its not my entry then. After that we decided to have a beer and throw a few darts, remarkably the least sporting (probably), Chops, looked at ease at the ochey and managed to throw a three dart score of 154.

The next day we were abruptly awoken by the Little man, who had decided to pull a finger out and get us up early to see the sights. After a ferry trip to Hong Kong Island, myself and Ickle split from Big Stuff and Chops. We headed for the business end of the island, whilst the others headed off in hunt of the Memorial graves for one of Dave's Grandad's cousins who was killed during the second world war. Unfortunatley, the Big Man's quest was unsuccessful as he found the memorial sight, but not the headstone he was looking for after searching the whole site. However there were many unmarked graves, so it may have been one of those. After that they went to the local market, where Chops bought a watch, which despite his claims has not made him arrive on time yet.

Myself and Ickle decided to hang around with the upper class of Hong Kong business world, as a warm up for becoming yuppies after our travels. We strode from one mall to another. In every shop we found goods we liked, then decided we did not have room in our bags, the outrageous prices had nothing to do with it. Ickle had to settle for buying a pair of shorts from a tacky market stall, the shorts weren't bad, but the bright orange belt that came with them was beautiful.

The four of us met up in the mid afternoon and headed for Victoria Peak to over look the city. We decided that the walk up to the peak was out of the question and instead we took the tram. When we arrived at the top I decided I wasn't in my element and cowered away from the side of the viewing platform. We stayed at the peak for five hours so we could see the view in the dark. In my mind the view was equally impressive in the light and the dark. At about 8.30 we returned to the hotel area, ate and had a pleasant evening stroll. A very civilised day me thinks!

The next day was our last full day in China and Hong Kong. We were beginning to feel gutted about having to leave, but excited about the party scene in Thailand. Anyway, we decided to make it a full day again and headed again for Hong Kong island. We took the 800 metre escalator up the Hong Kong hillside, there was no outcome at the end, we just did it for the sheer hell of it. After a brief lunch we headed to the 43 floor of the China Bank Tower, again I didn't feel quite right, but I was told the view was brilliant. I also got told to sit properley by the security guard, it felt like being back at school again. After a short visit to the small, but very impressive park we headed back to the mainland. After dinner it was an early night as we had to be up early.

It was a 6.30 start from the hotel. The night before we had decided to walk to the Airport Express Station that only looked 15 minutes away on the map. Again, the map lied to us. After a 45 minute march we arrived at the station, boarded the well air conditioned train (to some relief) and made our way to the airport.

Sorry for the lateness of the entry. What can I say? I'm crap!

Sunday was supposed to be a day of sorting imprtant things out i.e how were we going to get to Hong Kong next saturday? After being domesticated and getting our washing done in Jeni's machine we headed off, some may say belatedly, to the foreign tourist office which gives help and advice, CITS. We caught the tube to the main precinct of Nan Jing Dong Lu and walked the 10 minutes to the office only to discover that they shut this office on sundays so it means that we have to come back again tomorrow. Instead we decide to check out what the local shops and department stores have to offer, and spend the remaining 3 hours we have before meeting James' sister and parents for a meal in various sports, music and clothes shops. We also stopped for ice creams on Nan Jing Dong Lu where they have a big LCD screen on the front of one of the buildings which was showing Shanghai's local team playing a football match. It was brilliant, there were just loads of people in the street watching the game, ooh-ing & argh-ing at goals and missed chances - a wonderful idea. The UK should catch on, at least it could mean that men may be more willing to be dragged around the shops by their wife or their girlfriend on a saturday afternoon! We met the Prettymans for dinner at a tasty vegetarian restaurant on the other side of Peoples Square and then headed back in to the city to walk around and take in the city at night. It was beautiful, all lit up with loads of neon signs and we all took loads of photos, definately a sight i won't forget for a long time.

Success on monday - CITS is open and we manage to book our train tickets to Guangzhou for saturday morning. Guangzhou is about 2-3 hours bus or train journey away from Hong Kong, so by going this way we reckoned that we may be able to save some money as the ticket here cost Y370 compared to Y600 direct to Hong Kong. In the evening we head out to the local restaurant near to Jeni's flat and after another delicious feed courtesy of the Prettymans we headed out with Jeni to the Kiwi Bar (again!). After a few beers and more arguments about the Holly Valance poster with the little man (get down the opticians - it was SO her!) we head back home to check emails and to find out the Bradford v's Norwich score...oh the excitement! It turns out that the Canaries won, some may say luckily (Gareth), by an 86th minute winner - the little man is very smug!

We headed out on tuesday with waterproofs on as it was bucketing it down in Shanghai. Gareth, Dave and I went to meet Jeni and James for lunch in the city as they had left earlier to take their Mum and Dad to the Airport bus as they were going to Beijing. As it was raining heavily we decided to leave walking the historic parts of the city such as the French Concession for a better day so instead we headed to one of Shanghai's museums that had been recomended. After we had finished in the museum the weather had got better but we headed back as we wanted to take a look at the shops near the flat as Jeni had told us the DVD's here are really cheap. I went back to the flat but the others went to find the shop and returned empty handed as the shop appeared to get busted by the authorities for pirating DVD's whilst they were in there! After some pizza and 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' DVD we head out with Jeni and her mates to two bars, Himalayas and C's.

After getting back to the flat in the early hours of the morning, wednesday was a day of recovery and it was a shame beacause it was a warm and sunny day and we had missed most of it! The French Concession was left for another day (are you noticing a pattern?). In the evening we decided to go and watch the Shanghai Sharks (local basketball team) play in the CBA Semi-finals against the North East Tigers. After some tube hopping and a lengthy walk we find the arena where they play and get mobbed by touts who want us to buy their tickets for the game. After battling through them we get our tickets, which only cost five pounds, and go and find our seats. We did well as we had seats half way back and in the middle of the stand so we had a really good view. Even though it was the semi-final the stadium was only about half full but the atmosphere was still good. I don't think the TV executives thought so though as the arena plays fake crowd singing and chanting tapes so the people watching at home think the stadium is full - bizarre! The Sharks won 106-91 mainly due to their 7ft 5in star player, Yao Ming (add brummie accent for true comic effect - it made us laugh anyway!) - who scored loads of their points. After the game when we got back to the flat we decided to watch the film 'Spy Game' which Dave had managed to buy on DVD earlier in the day without getting busted this time. It was going well until about 50 minutes in when it was getting really good and then the picture started freezing and breaking up. It did only cost 80p so I suppose you get what you pay for!

Thursday was a bit more successful day in terms of getting things done. Dave and I get up and find the post office to send letters and postcards home and then we all head out in to the city to visit the French Concession. The contrasts between this part of town and the rest of Shanghai are striking. There was a lot of European style architecture with small-scale buildings and tree-lined roads as opposed to the ultra-modern glass and steel skyscrappers which dominate the rest of the city. It was lovely just walking around the area as it was another warm day and then we visited the park that was in the area too. Later on in the afternoon we took an hour-long cruise on the river and took loads of photos of the city. After another late lunch we split up and did different things as James and Dave wanted to visit the museum in Peoples Square and Gareth and I wanted to have a look in the shops. The museum ended up being closed so they had to settle for an expensive beer in a bar whilst they waited for us to meet them again later. After meeting Jeni after she finished work we head out with her and her friends to a few bars in the city. After some dodgy cab rides with drivers who spoke Shanghainese not mandarin we arrived in Bar Caribe where the beer is very expensive. It turns out though that until 10pm the beer is free - what an offer! We manage to get a couple of bottles in for free before we actually have to pay for one. After this bar we get taken to Windows, which was a bit of a student bar really and like Hull bars, cheap! After a few more hours of beers and Tequilla drinking with Jeni's mate Meridith, we head off back to the flat about 3am after a quality day out in Shanghai.

Right i'll leave you now in the capable hands of the boy Rossington for the next installment.

Tuesday began (far too early for my liking) with arrival in Wuhan at 5am. We bid farewell to our boat and walked out into the pouring rain. In double quick time we managed to secure a taxi with a driver who was prepared to use his meter for the journey to the train station (the theory behind this is simply to avoid a fleecing on the price of the taxi by paying only a regulated amount). Our self congratulations suddenly appeared a little premature as the taxi man proceeded to wind his way down road after road making endless turns here and there, all in complete contradiction to the rough guide map which shows a straight main road about 2 miles long from the dock to the station! The result of this was a taxi fare four times that which we would have expected to pay. Quite frankly, we were done!

After getting train tickets to depart this afternoon we deposit our bags in the left luggage office and look for something to do during the next seven hours. James duly fills the gap as he takes us on an enourmous tour of Wuhan in search of an internet place. After much consulting of guide books, much much more walking and, some may even dare to say...luck, we stumble across a super speedy internet cafe. Following an uneventful few hours on the train we arrive in Zhenzhou and manage to get beds for the night in a place near the station. It doesn`t take long for these to be put to good use!

We kick off Wednesday with some more semi-successful train station ticket antics before boarding the bus for a three hour ride to the Shaolin Si temple. The original birthplace of Kung Fu is set in a beatiful mountain valley and contains several things of interest. Inside, the monastry retains an amazingly tranquil air despite the armies of tourists that march around its grounds....when did this diary entry begin to sound like an excerpt from Lonely Planet?! Anyway, the local inhabitants walk about exuberating a serene hardness, completely impervious to the attempts of four University of Hull graduates (albeit only just in some cases) to photograph themselves mimicking scenes from Karate Kid! Exploring the rest of the area we discover the Forest of the Dagobas, loads of stone pagoda type things which were used as training grounds for the monks in the winter, and a cave where one dude sat and meditated for nine years, that's just an excuse for laziness really! After a further wander around we head back to Zhenzhou and our hotel rooms where we watch the Oscars on the TV, well "watch" isn`t strictly the right word as it seems that the hotel haven`t paid their cable bill and so all we get is sound!

We make the 12:00 check out time with seconds to spare on Thursday morning and spend the day combining searching for banks and searching for restaurants, the second of which is eventually sacked off in favour of MacDonalds (well, we did try!). The train related semi-success that was mentioned yesterday refered to the fact that we were only able to get hard seats for the fourteen hour trip to Shanghai. Needless to say, this does not sound good! We board just before 11pm to find that it is a slight improvement on Indian hard seats.....but only just. Comfort is dispensed in favour of improved posture with chair backs so rigidly vertical that only by inserting a pole up the backside could a straighter spine be achieved. The hours crawled past as we pass the time reading books and trying to coax as much power as possible out of dying walkman batteries, whilst simultaneously trying to maintain blood circulation in what were becoming increasingly sore buttocks!

As fourteen hours stretched their way to nearer fifteen and a half we finally arrived in Shanghai. Jumping straight on the train we head south on the Tube to Jeni's (James` sister) apartment. On arrival the exhuastion of having been up since yesterday morning is relieved slightly as we discover that for the next week we can live in the relative bliss of a sit down toilet, a hot shower and even better, a superb DVD collection! After getting ourselves sorted out, we head out for dinner with James' parents (who are also here on holiday) before moving on to the Kiwi bar. It is here (in between arguments about whether or not the poster on the wall is in fact of Flick from Neighbours - it so wasn`t!) that we meet one of Jeni`s friends, Lou from New Zealand, who bizarrely happens to know a family friend of Dave's as they are from the same town back home. What are the chances?

After some much needed kip (not to mention watching the Matrix on DVD!), Saturday is spent getting our first view of downtown Shanghai which does not disapoint. As we emerge from the cavernous tube station beneath Peolpes Square the number and size of the futuristic, towering sky-scrapers is quite breathtaking. In its efforts to secure that it is chosen for the sight of Expo 2010, construction is going ahead at full speed. After a stroll and some lunch we end up down by the river in the Bund area. It is from here that we can view the very distinctive Pearl TV tower and, I'm told, the world's third tallest bulding, the JingMao tower (although plans have already been approved for an even bigger building which will be right next door) from across the river. The evening involves going out for another tasty meal with the Prettyman's, a few beers back at the flat and the usual saturday night ritual of attempting to get an uncooperative short wave radio to pick up the BBC world service.

OK, I guess that about does it for my days. I`ll leave you in the safe (and Newsround Press-Packer Experienced) hands of Big Dave "I was 7-Balled" Watson for the next installment. I just hope he adequately describes the mighty Canaries win over Gareth`s Bradford on Monday night!

You may all have been less than overwhelmed at the Goats description of the Terracotta Warriors, so it's really up to me to say that they were pretty damn impressive and easily beat anything that the Stoke pottery museum could offer. Oh, and they also guarded the first Qin (pronounced "Chin") Emperor, so it's probably a good idea that Gareth didn't come along or he might have gotten jealous! After that little bout of excitement, thursday was a bit of a damp squib to be honest. We grabbed yet another brekkie from Oddjob Kane's place, complete with a final game of silly-throws darts, and left feeling full and a little guilty seeing as we probably owe the man a new wall. The bus journey down to the station came with its usual complement of emergency stops, maniac kerb-banking and handbrake turns, this time exacerbated by the restriction of blood flow to our handhold-clutching fingers due to 3 stone sacks on our shoulders. We are catching the train down to Chengdu (south of Xi'an) in order to then cross to Chongqing (east) and do the marvellous Yangzi 3 gorges, and we've been reliably informed that there are no direct trains to Chingqing so Chengdu is our only option. Once on board the train, while marvelling at the beautiful mountain scenery outside, we distinctly overhear a man say "Chongqing!" to the conductor. We check. Can you guess what the train's final destination is? It never rains but it pours.....

Arriving bleary-eyed in Chengdu at 7.30am, we attempt to sort out a coach to Chongqing and leave ASAP. Deciding not to go with the touts at the railway station, on the basis that you always get ripped off if you take the first price, we get a cab to tourist info downtown who give us the location of the relevant bus station (another cab ride away). Seeing as the morning is yet young and our bellies are empty, we wander down the main drag looking for a western cafe recommended to us by Fanny and Jerome in Xi'an, still with heniously heavy sacks on our backs. An hour later and we are forced to conclude that all French travellers are scum, and that a chicken burger breakfast from Dico's (local KFC rip-off) really isn't the best way to start your day. At the coach station, the official ticket annoyingly turns out to be more expensive than the one the touts offered us - and of course we also have to add the cost of two cab rides to the bill. We suck at this game!

After four hours of Jackie Chan and me making rude gestures at the back of the man's head in front of me (the only person on the bus who likes to travel with his seat permanently down) we arrive in Chongqing and are immediately set upon by a crowd of ferry touts with extremely long fingernails. Fighting our way free, we manage to find the offical office and get a three-day trip down-stream to Wuhan, fourth class (stylish!), for twenty two quid, stuff-all really. We have a couple of hours until departure so do a quick shopping trip to the local French supermarket (as you do in central China) to stock up on highly unhealthy food, at which point we bump into the German couple we met in Datong a week ago and try and work out who's following who! On board the boat, we find our cabin and are impressed by it's marble floor, en-suite bathroom and satelite TV (and sarcasm is a wonderful thing!), but back in reality land, our 6-bed room is being shared by a woman and two blokes (do the maths), cosy! Our home for the next three days is not exactly P&O, but it's not bad. The only thing that it's lacking is a social area that you don't have to pay for, as we find out when we're kicked off the top deck at midnight. Curses!

We sleep in on saturday, due to a general lack of options, although even the Goat's kipping ability is made to look amateurish by the two stowaways on the bunk above me - as far as we can see they do nothing for the next 3 days apart from sleep, go to the toilet and flick fag-ash onto our bags. After investigating the bathroom facilities I am firmly convinced that a worse toilet could not even be found on the third day of Glastonbury Festival. The flushing system is a trench running inches underneath you and privacy consists of 2-foot high partitions to the side only! Yep, that's right, there is no door! Coupled with the Chinese's unabashed curiosity for westerners, this makes for some disturbing situations, the worst of which is experienced by Little Dave who only gets rid of one prying onlooker with a speeding loo-roll aimed at his head! We consider eating nothing but Immodium for the rest of the trip.

We fool around and admire the hilly scenery speeding past until we stop at a hill side temple just before dusk and myself and the Big Man grab some delicious chilli-covered sautee'd potato things for dinner, along with some beers that we drink while watching 'Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon' - spoiled slightly by the CD skipping during all the best Kung-Fu scenes near the end. Spend the rest of the evening chatting to an American couple bearing a striking resemblance to Bill and Hillary Clinton, then go off to bed.

I drift awake the next morning to see what looks like suspiciously gorge-esque scenery ploughing past outside, but my built-in, student cultivated Slob Clock tells me that it's still definately well into the AM, and my sleeping bag is just far too comfy. When we all wake up properly the love boat is stationry, with just plain old boring hills off to either side. After a swift biccy brekkie and an even swifter dismissing of the idea of having a shower (now 3 days and counting), we head out on deck only to discover that the boat is practically deserted apart from ourselves, a girl with ominously large shoes and, of course, our own stowaways (come out into the open? Suicide!). Not being sure why or for how long we are stopped for, and lacking the (read: any) linguistic skills to ask, we just decide to sit put and see what happens. The Daves start a very limited conversation with le femme et big shoes (there are only so many concepts that can be expressed through the medium of pointing), who turns out to be a class-A, two-rice-cakes-short-of-a-dim-sum loon. There's deck-stomping galore, mood swings, Big Dave hair-pulling, the works.

Taking a swift exit, we sit up on the top deck for quite a while, watching luxury cruise ships bomb past that are, quite frankly, the nuts. One in particular stands out, a huge gold-plated effort with twin dragon headmasts that quite obviously contains a bar and, outrageously, a swimming pool. We seeth with envy. Equally impressive are the little hydrofoils that make us look like we're standing still (which, technically, we are), and look like a rejected prop from Thunderbirds. When everyone else returns, after a stop approaching 6 hours, we question Bill and Hillers. This was, apparently, Wushan, jumping-off point for the even-more-spectacular-than-the-3-gorges Three Little Gorges which everyone who either speaks Mandarin or has a tour guide has now seen, and just to add the icing they tell us that, yes, we passed the first gorge this morning! Yet again, we suck! On the plus side we now move off through gorge #2, a stunning piece of natural beauty, where our helmsman (the ever present Mr Lin who has guided most of our forms of transport since arrival in China) takes his foot off the gas and gets properly done around the outside by several other tour boats, on one of which we spy our German friends again! Spooky. Darkness now falls before we enter the final gorge, meaning that our final tally is a less than impressive 1/3 but we don't really mind. Just before we go to bed we pass the 3 gorges dam, an absolutely staggeringly large half-completed piece of concrete that, when completed in 2009, will be the largest of its kind in the world, flooding the gorges and displacing millions of people. Now feeling thoroughly insignificant, we take our leave.

Monday is our final day on the boat, although we have not the slightest idea what time we are due in Wuhan. At around four o'clock people start milling around the side of the boat waiting to get off, amongst the throng are four western travellers kitted up with rucksacks. It turns out that they are getting off at Wuhan too, which they believe we should be reaching in around 5 minutes. Confused, we head up to the back deck where our American friends are having some dinner in the canteen, and ask them where we are. Bill replies that according to their tour guide we are only making a quick stop and that Wuhan shouldn't be reached until about 5am, but unfortunately by the time he's told us this the backpackers have already disembarked and we never find out if they corrected their mistake or ended up stranded in Nowheresville. Having said that, as we pull away in the same direction that we arrived we start to wonder if they made the mistake after all. Placing our faith in Mr Lin's navigational skills and American ex-presidential naval intelligence turns out to be a good bet however, and we soon exit the tributary that we'd unknowingly turned up. Vowing to get an early night, we head off to bed only to have our plans scuppered by a stomp of the deck, a mood swing, and a pre-emptive strike of empty bottles under the cabin partition. It's the nutter! While the rest of us manage to extract ourselves and drift off to sleep at a reasonable hour, Big Dave is not so lucky and ends up going through my phrasebook page by page until midnight, desperately trying to find the section containing the phrase "clear off, I'm knackered!".

If I could have put this much effort into a philosophy essay I'd have been very proud! Take it away The Horne....

Our first weekend in China provided our first insight into less developed China, and our first major realisation that the language barrier was going to be a real problem. We arrived in Datong at 7.30am and immediately put on most of our clothes, to say it was cold would be an understatement. After the thermals were on we booked ourselves onto the Hanging Temple and Yungyan Caves tour. The tour left at 9.00. The three hour journey was broken up with a visit to a traditional mountain side village. We were welcomed into an old geezer's gaff, who offered all 15 of us in the tour party a cigarette - how he reached the age of 84 none of us knew. We arrived at the Hanging Temple, which now hangs 45 metres up the side of a cliff face. It was an impressive sight, but not being the best with heights and the strong winds, the gangways were not to my liking. The other three were much more macho about the situation.

After the Temple we went for a group lunch, it turned out to probably be our best meal in China, dish after dish was brought out until finally the table was covered. Another two hour journey followed to the Yungyan Caves, the temp. was still nippy. The Yungyan Caves are made up of around 40 seperate caves, of which 20 were definately spectacular. The best one contained a 17m tall Budha and for once Chops found himself dwarfed. We returned in the early evening. After a day in the cold both Daves thought it would be nice to unwind with a hot shower. Not only was the shower colder than outside, it was also on full view to the public of Da Tong. Not a pretty sight me thinks! For the evening meal we decided to try the local cuisine and it turned out to be a fiasco - we can't speak Manderin, they couldn't speak English and before we realised what was going on we had ordered some sort of game bird, eel soup, some noodles and various veg dishes. We managed to get rid of the veg dishes and settled down to eat. A few moments later a fight kicked off between two of the kitchen staff and five minutes of threats, slaps, head butts and bottle waving later it dispursed. Not wanting to cause more problems we got our heads down and ate.

The next day was a much quieter affair. After getting up late and having lunch, we headed to the train station for the 3 hour wait for the train. During this period we were a spectacle for the locals. At one stage a beggar approached Chops, who thought he would pay for the blokes evening meal. This strange chap thought he would wait to see if he would get more (fat chance), and before we knew it we were surrounded by half of the very curious waiting hall. When the train arrived we were relieved to finally get on. The train journey was largely uneventfull, except for Chops who spent most of the night in the train loo (4-5-6 "not nice!"). We arrived in Xi'an in the morning and the place was a hub of activity. As we discovered later there was a conference going on, which actually turned out to be a wine festival.

After checking into the hotel and leaving chops in his bed, myself, Freddie and Ickle decided to walk into the town centre in search of a cash machine, evetually one was found that accepted our cards. After a brief visit to a Nike store to check out a Britney Spears video we headed for the train station to try and book a ticket to Chengdu. We ended up in the 7 day advanced queue, to use Little Dave's words, "CARNAGE". It was a free-for-all, people pushing in left and right. After a swift change of tactics we sent the big man in, he took no crap and soon we were at the front of the queue, only to be told there were no tickets for about 5-7 days. Heads down after all the effort, we headed back to the hotel to blame Chops. The evening was spent in Kanes Kafe, with the odd beer and a few bad games of darts.

The next day started off with our first meeting of the Chinese version of The Fleecer. After telling us he could get us hard sleeper train tickets for 200 Yuan, with 80 Yuan commission, we headed to the train station to see if we could do any better. After finding out we couldn't we headed back. On the way we met Jerome and Fanny, a French couple with the same train problems. Upon return to the hotel Big Stuff had a phone conversation with The Fleecer and agreed to meet him at 8.00pm. We had lunch with the French couple amd a lazy afternoon followed. That afternoon Kane (of Kanes Kafe fame) showed what a handy man he really was: after fixing the roof of a shelter, he helped Ickle and I with our washing machine problems. That evening was spent in Kanes with more beer and darts, again with the French couple and an Englishman and a South African (who was worse at darts than us, considerabley so, in fact he sucked). The train tickets didn't materialise and we agred to meet The Fleecer at 8.00pm the following day. Oh yeah, I nearly forgot, it was Jam's birthday.

The next day we were rudely awoken by a Scandanavian lass who was off early to the Terracotta Army, thanks big man for asking for that alarm call! That was at 8.00am, we finally surfaced at 10.00. Well the other three did, I wasn't feeling quite myself. By all accounts the Terracotta Army was fantastic, from what I could make out from the others it was a large group of soldiers (an army), made out of Terracotta. In fact, 'it does exactly what it says on the tin'. That evening we decided on a change from Kanes and we headed into the town to find a place to eat. We found one with an English menu, the food was of top class and at a reasonable price, except for Ickle, who paid 90p for a can of Sprite and 4 pounds for the meal. By the way, the fleecer came up trumps with the ticket (after a few additional problems), but at the increased price of 220 Yuan. Laters!

As midnight had passed we headed through to our departure gate at Mumbai International to board on first plane to Singapore. Although the guy who checked us in re-assurred us that we were all seated together it turned out that i was in fact sitting on my own in the middle section, two rows ahead of the others - great. It turned out ok though as there was no-one sitting next to me so i could put up the arm rest, stretch out my legs and curl up under my blanket to watch 'Shallow Hal' and play Street Fighter 2! None of us managed much sleep (well gareth did, but thats to be expected) on this flight, maybe an hour or so, but we awoke to a beautiful sunrise on the approach to Singapore. On our descent we flew in over the coast and passed over many plush golf courses before the captain set us down on to the runway. We had to head to our connecting departure gate that would take us on to Beijing and we found that quite quickly. Yet again thanks to the great check-in staff at Mumbai i was on my bill, but we managed to move so we split in to two's a few rows apart. Whilst little Dave and Prettyman debated who should have the window seat again, Gareth and i debated over which movie to watch first. After much SNES playing and movie watching and suprisingly delicious plane food we arrived in Beijing at 3pm feeling shatterred as we had been on the go since 9am the previous day.

We cleared customs after much paperwork and stern glances and we decided to get the shuttle bus from the airport in to the city. We accomplish this quite simply which suprised us. What was not so simple was finding the youth hostel that Danish bloke Moreton had told us about. We got dropped off and walked for an hour. Without the name of the hostel and a very rough 'Rough Guide' annotated map, the words "needles & haystacks" sprung to mind. We knew we must have been close as Moreton had told us it was very near Starbucks which we had passed! Not to be beaten James and Dave went off in search whilst me and Jimmy took care of the luggage. After an hour and half they return with good & bad news. After searching in vain and asking Chinese people using their knowlege of Mandarin & a phrasebook there was still no luck. However, in one posh hotel that they went in to for help they met a guy called Louis who spoke brilliant english and who generously called lots of hotels looking for rooms for us and advised them on the best rate to get a taxi for etc. In return they took his business card and offer to take him out for a drink.

On their way back to us they actually spot THE youth hostel and do try to get us in there but apparently it was "Choca!" or full. After a quick discussion we decide to try the Jinghua hostel in the guide and if that was full we would try one of louis' suggestions. One 30 Yuan taxi ride later we get dropped off nearby and ten minutes later we find the hostel. It's quality. Marble & glass lobby reception area, dorm rooms of 11 beds for 30Y per night, it does tours to the Great Wall, has a 24HR bar & restaurant and a pool table! We dumped our stuff in the room and have a dinner in the restaurant which is v.v.cheap. Then due to sleep deprevation we headed off to bed. Little Dave and Gareth were nicely suprised on our return to discover that the dorm rooms were off the mixed variety - obviously James & my reaction was one of indifference.

After having a long lie-in despite numerous attempts by the cleaning staff of the hostel to wake us up we decide to use the rest of Tuesday to sort stuff out i.e. the train to Da Tong. But first breakfast. After sampling the restaurants breakfast/lunch menu we decided that the best way to get around the city was to hire bikes. After handing over 400Y in deposit for four, one-geared, posture correcting, heavy framed, bum numbing bicycles we began crossing the city to get to the train station. Beijing from what we saw yesterday & today on the bikes seems on the surface very impressive with excellent infrastructure, modern tower/office blocks and non-existant litter i.e. not like any Indian cities that we have visited. As Little Dave had the map & reckoned he could navigate us he took the lead. Like speedy Gonzalez he soon became just a small dot in the distance until the group caught him up again! Bikes are a great way to get around this city and the roads are swamped with felow cyclists which at times can be utter carnage as you cross the vast junctions that Beijing has. On the other hand bikes are not necessarily the best way to get around especially when you get a tyre blow-out half way to the station as Gareth did. All stop for 20 mins whilst we buy an inner-tube but the shop won't fit it! James & Dave head off to get the train tickets whilst me and Jimmy figure out how we are going to fix this tyre.

We find a back street repair shop and after 10 minutes of waiting an old Chinese guy who can speak a little english tells us they won't help us as they're too busy. After looking around for another place we return to pester them again unsuccessfully. In the end we persuade them to let us use their tools to do it ourselves. After 30 minutes of struggling we eventually get the tyre off - not quite your quick release meachanism. After sniggers and watching us struggle the repair guys eventually finished the job for us - peristence does pay off in the end! After meeting Dave & James at the Maccies back on the main road a few hours later (an obvious meeting point we thought), who had been able to get train tickets, we headed back to the hostel to claim our deposit and then back out again to meet Louis for a drink to say thanks. We met him at another very posh hotel and he took us to several western style bars that have sprung up in Beijing and sounded us out about all his business ideas with the boy Rossington giving him some handy business tips. After a few more bars and beers we bid Louis goodnight as he kept trying to persuade us to go to Kareoke bars where women would sing with you on stage and talk to you, erm - We don't think so Louis - TAXI!!

Wednesday was of course a momentous day...My Birthday! It was to be a day of sight seeing in Beijing and again we crossed the city on bikes with no problems today. After a small lie-in today and grumbles from the rest of the group about my impatience to make the best of the day we headed up to Tianaman Square after brekkie. After parking our bikes we are soon collered by two Chinese students who study art and english. After chatting for a short while they ask us if we would like to come and see their free art exhibition. Not to appear culturally inept we duly agree and spend the next 45 minutes looking at some great artwork and trying to tell them that we couldn't possibly buy any of it as we have no room in our rucksacks. After leaving the exhibition we walk in to the enormous square which is very impresive. We only manage to have a short wander around as the police and army soon begin clearing the square quickly as parliament was ending in the government building next to the square - we thought they were probably just all leaving for lunch! Next we headed for the entrance to the Forbidden City, the old Emporers residence, which has the huge portrait of Chairman Mao at the front. Again on walking to the ticket booth we got approached by more english speaking art students who wanted us to come and see their art (noticing a patten here?), this time we declined. The city was amazing with many palaces, ornate thrones & vast courtyards - the Emporer lived very well back then! After a few hours we had to go back and claim our bikes before they got clamped and then headed back to the hostel late afternoon. After an email session we later went to the bar for some food, beer and some birthday pool playing. Little Dave will probably brag about his 7-balling of me on my birthday, all i will say was that i wasn't playing my best and was two beers ahead of him at the time.

Thursday was our day out to the Great Wall. After only managing to get five hours sleep we were all up at 7am to get showered and grab breakfast before the bus departed at 8am. The previous nights drinking escapades were not conducive to a three and a half hour mini-bus ride to the Wall. There was general 'coma'-ishness of walkman listening, reading and sleeping until we arrived at Simatai. On our approach we could see the wall snaking over the peaks of the mountains and it looked amazing and stretched as far as the eye could see. It took us 30 minutes to climb up to the wall and thats when the fun started. Did we visit the ppular site of the wall at Badaling where it's considerably flatter, wider & less steep? No we didn't, that would have been too easy. The after affects of last nights drinking took their toll and i was the first who decided he had gone far enough. The others carried on a few more turrets further before turning back. The views were impressive and as it was a beautifully hot day, we were all very trigger happy with the cameras even if it was a little hazy accross the mountains. James had trouble giving the persistent t-shirt sellers the slip which made us all laugh, but we soon had to get back down to the bus to get back to the city. When we got back it was another meal in the cheap hostel restaurant (really living it up hey!) and an early night was definately needed.

Our last day in Beijing and we managed to get up reasonably early as we needed to get our luggage over to the train station lockers so we didn't have to carry it around all day till our train at 10.30pm. We were just going to wander around the city today and look in the shops and get a feel for Beijing before we left. After visiting the obligatory sports and electronic goods shops to admire what we cannot afford we head off to find a bookstore where James can find a Mandarin phrasebook. We try and visit Chairman Maos' mausoleum in the early afternoon but that turns out to be closed on friday afternoons - (the Rough Guide is again v.rough). In the end after some lunch we head down to the Temple of Heaven which is where the Emporers used to come and pray for a good harvest. This too was mostly closed up but it was still nice to walk around the park. It was neary 7pm now and we decided to go and see an opera/acrobatic show at this famous tea room near the square. We of course were in the cheap seats at the back, but we still got endless free tea and nibbles. It was really good with impressive performers (some more than others), quality tricks and a bit of martial arts thrown in too. When the show finished we headed off for some noodles and then to the train station to get our train to Da Tong.