Saturday, May 10, 2008

Highest ranking imperial concubine chicken for a short time

We have just spent the last three weeks in china. We covered 2377 miles by night train and saw all the great sights. It is difficult to know where to start telling you about the trip. It was amazing ans we saw so much. We had a brilliant local guide called Frank who kept us well fed and ensured our trip went as smooth as possible. We started out in Hong Kong following a really horrible landing in a grade 3 typhoon. Hong Kong was a crazy city and a good starting point as it fools you in to a false sense of security thinking that being in China cannot be that difficult as so many people speak English! After a few days we moved on the Yangshou, with its beautiful scenery. One of my highlights of the trip was an amazing outdoor performance on the river in Yangshou in the worlds largest natural stage. Directed by the guy who will be doing the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics. Very difficult to photograph or explain the show it is a amazing performance using lights, the water and natural beauty.

From Yangshou we travelled to the three gorges dam and took a cruise on the Yangtze river which was beautiful. From here we went to X'ian which was my favourite city. With the shops in the Muslim quarter, the Bell and Drum towers and the old city wall. We of course from here took a trip to the terracotta warriors, which were just amazing. Having seen the warriors in the British museum I felt I knew what to expect. Seeing the warriors was absolutely amazing. However I really enjoyed seeing the parts that were newly excavated. The warriors in pieces that are painstakingly put back together by the archaeologists.

From here we went to Shanghai which to be honest is the part of the trip I could give or take. the highlight was the acrobatic show which was fantastic. Then on to Beijing to the Forbidden city, Tiananmen square. The final day was a trip to the Great Wall. Walking along the Great wall was amazing, to think you are stood on a wall built so long ago. The chair lift up and toboggan ride down from the wall was fun too!

We had a really great group which made the trip even more fun. A group of 15 random individuals put together for three weeks could be a disaster but we all got on really well and had great fun. Another highlight was the food, everyday we had a feast chosen for us by Frank. I sampled delights such as tripe, donkey, chicken feet and dog. There were lots of comedy signs where they had translated in to English. One of the best gave the title of this post, it is basically quick fried chicken, In a hotel I came across a sigh saying 'If you have an affair please inform housekeeping'.