CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON PEKING DUCK

You won't know how hard I worked to get this shot... 1000 people just around the corner!

Simatai Great Wall

Quite unbelievably, we had it to ourselves

The Forbidden City, anyone see the General?

The General and Western at Simatai

Birds nest Olympic stadium

This might inspire a few of you to travel!

The Forbidden City, and those very dangerous umbrellas....not the eyes, not the eyes.

First up, congratulations to the winners of the 'Are you the farmer?' quiz... joint winners no less, a Mr Russell Scott from Shepherds Bush, and a Mr Jon Woods of no fixed abode, they will both receive a generous helping of carbonara, well done boys!

Thanks to Dave 'Was I in that band' Bootle for posting the previous updates from London, we expect to not have to trouble you again Dave, now that grown up behaviour has returned to us here in Mongolia.

So this is the final post about what is surely the worlds biggest building site, just under 8 weeks completed in China with us desperately trying to find space, we came across it rather bizarrely on the Great wall at Simatai - this is a dramatic section of the wall, on its eastern extremity, and I would recommend this to anyone visiting China. Being able to wake up next to the wall and stroll for a couple of hours before others arrived was a completely unexpected bonus, and a welcome break from the incessant qeueing that has been such a tedious feature of our time here.

Beijing was very hot and very humid, but the excellent metro system meant we could get around cheaply and quickly. We ate excellent smoked duck (queued 1 hr to get it), chose not to eat 'sauteed camel hump' (I kid ye not) from the same menu, or indeed sea horses or star fish from the night market.

We observed the lowering of the Chinese flag at Tiannanmen, and went to the theatre to see a terriffic shaolin warrior display - this came complete with an over officious steward and her laser pen, picking out anyone who dared to take a picture. We visited the Birds nest Olympic stadium, and the Cube swimming pool, entertainingly filled with Beijingiites displaying poor lane discipline. Western got up extra early to beat the crowds and visit the Temple of Heaven Park, which was a delight and featured a wonderful display of communal singing. Its been one of the country's highlights - groups of people exercising/dancing/singing - all ages using the public spaces.

The old style single story dwellings known as 'Hutongs', in Beijing and other Chinese cities, are disappearing fast, but our guest house south of Tiananmen was near one of the remaining areas, narrow alleyways and communal toilets provided an interesting neighbourhood!

XIAN (the worlds largest building site)

Home of the terracotta warriors kept us busy for 4 days - visiting tombs and temples, and a day trip to what must be the busiest mountain Western & Kiss have ever been on, Hua Shan. In many ways this day sums up our travel in China in the peak season - it was a Taoist mountain, home to worshipping monks seeking isolation and contemplation, now it is completely completely overrun with tourists (including ourselves of course) - there are food vendors every 10 minutes, and souvenir stalls selling gold medals to show your achievement in taking a cable car to the peak - imagine Oxford Street on the saturday before Xmas on a mountainside. Desperate stuff.

The warriors and the tomb were impressive, and its given us ideas about our own! The farmer who first stumbled across them in 1974 whilst digging a well was at the museum to sign copies of the many books on sale - it gave Ell the opportunity to ask "are you the farmer?" (first one to name the film gets one of La Petite Generale's carbonara's at Magdalen Road on our return).

There was some terriffic food to be had in the muslim quarter - great breads, stews and kebabs, courtesy of descendents of the silk road traders, and a fascinating mosque chinese style.

A POLITICAL UPDATE

Further 'rioters' and alleged separatists arrested in Urumqi after the early July fracas, over 1000 now. The children of the leader of the 'World Uighur Congress' have issued statements denouncing their mother!

We saw some classic comedy last week, a current affairs programme featuring 3 people all with the same viewpoint. Lord knows how they managed to string it out for 45 minutes. I think the programme is called 'Why are we so Great?'

PANDA'S

A sweaty 26 hour train trip from Guilin, brought us to Chengdu in Sichuan province. Panda's, drinking fragrant flower tea at the temples and attending the opera darling....that's what this interesting city offered, oh yes and incendiary food. We lost control of our mouths over a hotpot, but put out the flames with delicious walnut milk. We stayed at a wonderful hostel, 'Sims Cozy', this place really helped us get around efficiently. We saw blue sky, which was a bonus, and we visited the world's largest Buddha, it took us 90 minutes to descend from his eyebrows to his feet - admittedly, yet again there were heavy queues to see the big fella.

We did actually get the best seats in the house for the opera - and were able to watch the artists make up. The performance included shadow puppets, acrobatics, fire-eating and quite brilliant mask changing - we were 3 metres away and could not fathom out how he changed his masks - impressive sleight of hand.

The panda's were visited twice - feeding time being particularly entertaining - effortlessly stripping bamboo and chompsing whilst lying on their backs. The research station has had a fair amount of success with its breeding programme, though as yet none have been released back into their natural habitat - that's probably because there isn't any of that original habitat left, or maybe its because this is such a lucrative little business.

CHINA PART 2

Halfway through our 2nd visa now, and times a flying. Highlights have been the mausoleum and museum in Guangzhou - only discovered in the mid 80s, when builders were putting foundations in for a shopping complex. They came across a burial site now found to be a couple of thousand years old. Remains of the emperors servants were found in the room outside, and the emperors themselves were wrapped in Jade tile suits - I am sure these tombs will fade into insignificance after Xian's terracotta warriors, but for now they feel quite impressive.

The limestone karst scenery of Yangshuo concealed itself from us for a few days, but the rain stopped on our last afternoon, so we hired bikes and got out to see what everyone raves about, and quite rightly so.

ALL ABOARD

We have been using trains to cover the immense distances - a mixture of hard sleeper ( 6 to a cabin), and soft sleeper (4 to a cabin, with closed door).. Soft sleeper gets you a 'more equal' travelling companion, who is more likely to speak 'the queens', so on the the long distances we have opted or this. Hard sleeper is ok too if you can get the lower berths, middle and upper are a tad claustrophobic. Most trains are A/C, and they all have attached restaurant cars serving up a dozen dishes. Trolleys are pushed up and down the train, fruit, main meals and toys all appear, as yet we have not stopped one, unlike Bangladesh where we wouldn't let one pass. Most locals prefer to bring their own food, and this usually means instant noodles, the trains supply unlimited boiling water, so at any one time there is usually the smell of rehydrated snacks wafting through the carriage. On our last trip (from Xian to Beijing), Western was awoken by the deafening sound of noodle slurping, the young lad had his technique down to a fine art.

We tend to get to the trains early to try and bag the luggage space in our compartment, its always very entertaining to see the crestfallen look as our neighbours arrive to find out they will be sharing with a couple of 'big noses'.

DAY TO DAY

Travel in China, when you dont speak the lingo is like playing charades 24hrs a day. It's mostly good fun and the locals will be prepared to do their best to understand the actions of a struggling tourist, but heck its tiring....it took Western 72 hours to find a toilet last week! Occassionally you will come up against a stone-faced opponent who will not smile desite your best attempts to win them over, probably still hacked off over the Opium wars.

Travelling in China's peak tourist season is something we will not be repeating, not the best planning from Western & Kiss. Holidaying with a billion people who all seem to be wanting to get on the same train as you has made for slow progress, and has made us less flexible, as we have to commit to a departure date as soon as we arrive in a place to ensure we can get out again! The sheer volume of people has been most noticeable at the tourist sites, still its all very amicable, and we have had some very pleasant interaction with fellow holidaymakers. 'Where are you from?'....'London, and you?'....'China' - 'oh really'.

HONG KONG

Ah the joys of travel, on monday morning (July 13), we say goodbye to the vast open spaces of Tibet, and by wednesday courtesy of China Southern Airlines, we are in HK - drinking cappucino and eating dim sum, and where Western celebrates his 46th birthday with 4 beers and a kebab in Lan Kwai Fong. Its refreshing to be in a place where you dont need a permit to break wind, and its refreshing not to see a Chinese flag mounted on top of every crane.

HK made us homesick, staying in a wonderful appartment (thank you K+A+M) with broadband internet and BBC entertainment channel - deep joy, was Hotel Babylon ever this good? Ell bought a camera, and I a tripod. We ate too much duck, and we enjoyed a bottle of wine or the first time in 6 months. We experienced a typhoon and overslept to miss the solar eclipse.