Day 8

Arrived in Xian, very different city, still has much of it's old architecture. Making preparations to go to Hau Shan mountains. Will also make a stop via the teracotta warriors.

Day 7

Went to the Yuyang caves and well worth it, cut into the southern section of Wuzhou Shan, the caves have 50000 buddhist statues, with some exceeding 20meters.



before long I we were exploring the nearby town, and it's backstreets, with a french girls we met on the way. Personally I enjoy cruising through the local villages, as much as any of the tourist attractions

Day 6

Left for Datong, to see Yugang caves.....going by train with Chris. Will spend 1 night there then go and see the caves and so on. Datong is in all sense of the word a mining town, interesting back streets and great restuarants. Supper for Chris and I came up to Y10, this included all drinks and excellent pork noodles and some giant stuffed dumplings. Within 2 minutes of starting our supper we began to draw a crowd...it seems strange but two white men eating at a street restuarant, using chopsticks is apparently rather fascinating.

This is a picture from the train over datong, most of datong is like this, a far cry from most parts of Beijing.

Day 4

AARRGGHHH still no sleep, it's 6:00am and I am off to the bus station to catch a long distance bus to Huairou and on to Huanghua by minibus. The minibus ride was crazy nearly drove head on into oncoming traffic a few times....oh well.

The section of the wall that i visited was off limits to the public, but the locals didn't seem to phased by my presence, they were more keen on having there pictures taken,I ended up racing some of the workers up to the first gaurd tower. Walking on this part of the wall where there is no sign of modern concrete or any restoration work, feels more genuine...despite the walls condition, it still has real character and you can't help but appreciate the amount of work that went into it! To hours along the path, and the forest had actually grown onto the wall.

I had to take shelter at one of the gaurd towers for 30min as it began to pour. But the misty atmosphere made the rolling hills seem....mysterious.

The legend behind this section of wall is that Lord Cai put such a high standard of quality on this part of the wall that when the ministry of war found out, he was decapitated for his efforts, but his body continued to stand for three days.

End of Day 3

Well No sleep for the wicked, another night out in Salitun (bar district of beijing). This is onitop one of the rooftop clubs, well worth a visit.


Oh and decided to go to Huanghua, a bit of a risk (because I don't know if the section I want to go to is open to the public), but will be great if I actually get there.