Hangzhou

We have had a relaxing couple of days here. We hired a bike and the children rode chinese style sitting side saddle on the parcel carrier. It was a rather hair raising experience. I have had a touch of the flu and everyone else has a cough. We leave for Shanghai later today and stay with a friend for 5 days. Bangkok is looking very unstable so the next few days we will have to take advice and see hat the plan of action wil be.....

food in china

We have seem some strange food in China like dog, squashed pig face, bird on sticks and pigs feet.Some of these are packaged for a snack.I have tried the baby bird on a stick as a man bought Erin and I one but Erin didn't want it so i had to have two.We got some honey comb which looked like it hade dug up from under some moss.The fruit is often twice the size than we get at home and it looks a lot fresher too.Many of the street stalls sell bambo which is chewed for flavour.Food is also served on sticks.We have found crabs,scorpions,squid,fish,potatoes and even sweet corn. Some are not so nice tasting. We have found a few supermarkets and been able to buy packed lunches, this has been mostly successful despite everything being packaged differently. Ieuan

Class Mr Bowen

I have been doing a lot of walking in the last couple of days and i have learnt some Chinese.It is very good where we are now, it has boats that you push along with a stick!.We went over a bridge that was very thin with no railings and there are some stepping stones across the river as well as the bridge.There is a river side market and there was a dog that was very very cold, it was sitting next to 2 kettles
to keep warm.
Dad and i went for a walk and we saw a dead rat that was 20cm long without the tail.
An old lady came up to us and said she wouls dance if we gave her half a yuan (Chinese currency) equal to 5p to us.We spent 7 hours on a train and a lady sat next to me and taught me some more Chinese.
"She- u -she" is thank you and "boo- youang- sher" is no thank you.
If Conner or any other class members want to speak to me on msn you can. If you dont have an account you can always make one. Add me to your friends list ,my name is ieuan.w@hotmail.co.uk

Ieuan and Erin will post back the work they have done once we leave China. The postal service is exceptionally expensive

To Class 3/4 NM

To Class.
Thank you for my lovely message. We've been on two types of trains.
They were both hard sleepers.
Most people have what we call pot noodle.
The food is really good.
I hope you have a good Christmas play, I will miss watching you.
I think you will be really good.
I have to go now, have a good christmas play.
lots of love Erin. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 27 x from me.

Erin has been very conscientious with her work Miss Moir. Her diary is looking very interesting with lots of labels and tickets from all the activities she has done. Her chinese vocabulary is getting pretty extensive although her confidence isn't there to the same extent as Ieuan, who has shown a real flare for languages and engages in all the dealings with the locals.

Fenghuang

Firstly my apologies to all those who have emailed and i have not given a lengthy response. We have found access to the internet is intermittent and i spend much of my spare time booking accomodation.Also to those who have aol accounts for some reason the mail is not being delivered.We have so much to tell i wish i had more time. We took a chinese passenger/tourist boat to see what they consider to be worthwhile doing instead of a posh cruise. However the chinese boats were pretty basic and the standard cabin would make most people shudder to think what third class would be like. Western style toilets are extremely rare but it doesn't seem to bother them in the slightest. The norm is to have a shower directly above the sqwat toilet and it feeds most likely directly into the street judging by the smell. The scenery at points along the YangTze was spectacular but unfortunatly the chinese have little respect for this awesome river as they persistantly throw their rubbish in the water from the boat when there were facilities to dispose of it on board. We ate on the boat, i did look at the kitchen before hand but didn't tell anyone as they probably ouldn't have touched anything otherwise. The Food hygiene and health and safety culture hasn't yet affected China.

I booked a hotel in yichang end of the cruise as we were all in need of a shower after three days!! We then had another long train journey 7 hours to Jishou and bus (1 hour) to Fenghuang. Yet again I can't get over how well the children have travelled. They were both woken at 9.30 and we had a 20min walk to find our hostel, which was pretty dire. We were particulary cold last night, no hot water and when J found cockroaches in his socks this morning we made a quick exit. The kids are looking a little run down but Nats remedies will hopefully do the trick!!! combined with a rest in this charming village will hopefully give them time to recharge after a busy few weeks. We have had to do some laundry today as we were down to the last pair of pants and socks, unfortuantely the weather is rather parky and it looks as if it might be a few days before it dries. I've sucessfully uploaded some photos but haven't had time to label them, but they'll give you a picture of what we've done and seen.There are many street vendors everywhere, all selling the same products. They always seem to group together and you go to a pariticular district to buy whatever it is your after, ie tools, clothes, food etc. Kids have been rather interested at the markets where you can pick and choose the meat you want to have killed to order.

We have not been very sucessful in restuarants, much of what we ordered has been pretty disgusting. The British interpretation of what the Chinese eat is very different. Many of the hostels report "Chinese food only tastes good outside China" and we would mostly agree with that comment. Noodles are swimming in a broth and they use any cut of meat (usually with the bones left in. Had written much more but system keeps crashing. will post this and try and write more next time.

Chongqing

Our hostel in Xian was very welcoming but we have moved on.Thank fully someone handed in our photo card just before we departed so we came away a lot more positive as it had put a downer on our time there thinking there were untrustworthy charaters in our company. The children met their first friend, who is travelling with his parents throughout Asia for at least a year. We have arrived in Chongqing without any hitches or sickness!!!. At Xian train station last night We quede politely as the brits do. However without any choice we were soon being pushed into what was like a cattle barracade funnelling us thorugh the ticket barrier. Kids were a little alarmed as they though we were going to be split up. We were fortunate to have four beds last night so a comfortable night was had all. The children always seem to behave when it really matters thank goodness. They met a nice Chinese boy who has been travelling across China last few days and have picked up a bit more of the language。 The hostel here is brand new so we've enjoyed a shower。 Won't be logging in for the next few as we will be on the Yangtze cruise。

hi class.we went to see the terracotta warriors thay have found 3 pits with about 6000 of them so far thay think there could be 22 pits left to find.
the great wall was very impressive because it goes all over china across mountains.
today i met a french boy called Harold.thay said thay whent to a pub and thay had to order what ever thay could read but thay said the wrong thing and ordered 'dog' and then had to watch some one kill a dog and wash it in the river.
tommrrow we are on a over night train to chongquing to go on a 3 day trip on the yangtze river,we will be going through the '3 gourtges' and seeing the worlds biggest buddha.

To class 3/4 NM

To class I really miss you I Have hade a really good time.
Everyone takes my photograph and i don't like it.
I have been sick.
The toilets are funny because you have to crouch down and put paper in a bin.
We have met a French boy today.
We leave tommorrow for Chongqing on daddies birthday.
Its 14 hours on a night train.
The Terracotta Warriors are really nice but they haven't dug up all of them. It was better than i expected.I had lunch on a bench and mum let us have a sausage on a stick. It was really tasty. I like China because its got lots of beautiful and colourful gifts.It is nearly Daddies birthday and I am looking forward to it. We are going to see the lights illuminating the water fountain in the dark cold night.
We have been enjoying ourselves everyday, the people are very friendly and I have met some cute Chinese children so far.

Difficult day today!! Photos were stolen in the process of me uploading them onto the computer. No record of first week, but hey if thats all that happens, never mind. We are somewhat disillutioned witht the china we have seen so far. Unfortunately being westerners we are constantly targeted by beggers and hawkers. Very sad. On a plus point we have found a good hostel and intend on staying an extra night while we decide our next destination.We went to the drum and bell tower today and stumbled across a muslim quarter where there were some interesting gifts and foods for us to check out.We hope to rise early and go the the warriors tomorrow!!Would like to get out the cities for a bit and seee the real countryside.Thanks to all of you who have emailed, keep them coming. love H x

hi class.i have been to beijing to see the forbidden city and the great wall of china.i am now in a hotel in xian that has no roof in xian there is the terracotta warriors there are 1000s of them on display and many to be dug up.all the terracotta warriors are man size.i have seen many beggers on the street.

Xian

Some what bleary eyed we arrived at Xian this morning at 7am.The hard sleeper was cosy to say the least. Despite music going on until late evening and people jostling to find somewhere to sit and cook their evening meal we were pleasantly surprised by the experience which we had been dreading.The children got a good nights sleep and judging by the thickness of the mattresses here its looking hopeful for the next few days. They've even a travellers cafe which serves westerners food, where we've all devoured an english breakfast. We had to relent yesterday and have a Mcdonalds as the children weren't eating and beginning to look rather pale. Ieuan on the way to the train station last night in Beijings rush hour decided to bring it all up.

We're off to the terracotta warriors probably tomorrow after we've checked the city walls out. Its cooler today about 12c and pretty smoggy of what i saw earlier this morning. Internet access is free so the kids will write their news later today

We have had a restful day today. Yesterday we climbed the great wall at Mutianyu. It was somewhat spoilt by the hawkers. The chinese appear to be pretty poor at preserving the heritage sights we've visited so far. Expanding foam seems to be a favourite. Having difficulty accessing certain sites in the internet there seems to be restrictions and to top things off no usb ports to upload my photos at present. so watch this space!!! we have had a quiet day todat catching up on homework and trying to slow the pace down and make some food the kids will eat.Ventured out to the local supermarket today that was an experience, but Ieuan was pretty impressed as we purchased some enormous shrimps even though we thought they were tiger prawns.Hate to think how big their going to be!! We've so much to tell but can't fit everything in with the time i'm allowed and with kids needing entertaining. anyway i'll sign off and when we get to next destination. We catch night train to Xian tommorrow, thats going to be another one to remember as we could only get tickets for two upper bunks in a hard sleeper.!!!!

First Full Day

After a restless night due jet lag we are now getting in the swing of things. We had a good start and took a bus to the hub of Beijing without much difficulty. The people are so friendly and eager to help, or certainly pratice their English. We indeed have learnt some easy phrases.

For having had the Olympics it seems as though there has been an attempt to sign up main attractions. But the Lonely planet quide has been a real asset, Thx to Milli and Robin. There are people employed to take the plastic out of litter bins and sweep the floor, man bus stops and every corner there are at least two police officers or army personnel. We have found the people to be extremly friendly but also very pushy. trying to make a sell at every opportunity. We have unknownly masted the look to drive the price down but haven't seen anything we've needed as yet.


We have been on a ricksaw tour of Hutong and learnt about the hierarchical system which is still in place today.This area is as Erin said the oldest part of Beijing, dwellings amongst little alleyways which even today is where the poor live and cramped conditions 1 family have a room of 10 square metres and have to share a shower and toilet with up to another 10 families.

Everywhere is litter free but it is extremely grubby looking, the smog isn't as bad as it can be but you can hardly see any distance. Crossing roads is promblematic as it looks like a free of all, all they do is honk there horn. There's no cycle helmets or belts required. Bicycles have the right over everything else. Internet access seems to be fine so i hope to upload some photos in a few days.

We have seen some funny sights too, all the children of toilet training age where crutchless pants. The toilets are one to avoid unless absolutely necessary, especially the public ones, jay tells me there is no door.

We are going to the Forbidden City tomorrow now we have our bearings.
We leave for Xian on an overnight train Sunday.

to class

to class, i miss you all very much. the school toilets are much better than what we've seen of the Chinese ones. Today we went to Jingshan park and Tianeman square. We had a ricksaw tour around Hutong, the oldest part of Beijing. There are many poor families living there and up to 10 families may have to share a toilet and shower. I have had a very good time but i'm a little homesick. from Erin x

Ni Hao

"Hello" We've arrived. Good flight, kids managed a couple of hours of sleep at the most but seem to be holding out okay. Found the hostel without any difficulties. For those that had the holiday phone number its not working. Will write more after we've got our heads down and got something to report.