I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t looking forward to getting to Beijing. Although being a big, busy city, it sounded like it had a lot to offer and by all reports sounded like it was a great place. I’d spent a month, give or take, travelling through China, and although the smaller, more remote areas of the mainland have a lot to offer, I was looking forward to checking out the capital for myself. The Great Wall (see my separate post), Forbidden City, […]

I’ve still got a post on Shanghai to do but I wanted to get my thoughts on this little expedition down while they’re still fresh in my mind! All I can say is, wow. This place is truly amazing. It’s yet another attraction that lives up to the hype. One of my bucket list items was to visit The Great Wall. However, I didn’t want to just visit one of the most tourist-crammed sections as part of a tour at an inflated price; I wanted […]

Taking advantage yet again of China’s fantastic rail network, I caught a train from Xi’An to Shanghai. This train was more expensive than others I’ve taken (500 CNY) but landed me in the Chinese ex-pat hotspot at a suitable time in the morning, saving me a night’s accommodation and leaving me the rest of the day to explore the city. My first impression was that there’s a lot of money here; everything from the expensive cars cruising around, to the immaculate buildings, wide variety of […]

Xi’an is another well known city in central China. One of China’s oldest cities, it’s home to the famous Terracotta Soldiers among other attractions, making it a logical stop for me on my trek back towards the eastern coast of China. A 345CNY overnight train put me in Xi’an at a convenient time mid-morning, which is when my phone promptly died, leaving me wandering the streets of the ‘Muslim Quarter’ trying to find my hostel. Once I did, though, I was reassured by the fact […]

After spending a few days in the ancient city of Fenghuang, I decided to make my way to another highlight of the Hunan province, Zhangjiajie. On my searches about China, Zhangjiajie repeatedly popped up as being one of the must-see sights when visiting inland China. A 3 hour, 80CNY bus from Fenghuang got me to Zhangjiajie town at around midday, where I immediately jumped on a 2 hour local bus to just outside of the nature park. The place is renowned for being the inspiration […]

When I set about visiting China, my mission was to get to Beijing from Vietnam. In doing so, however, I didn’t want to simply trek the beaten path from Hong Kong, to Shanghai and up to the capital. China is a huge place, filled with many people, and there is no way I’d be able to see everything but I wanted to at least knock off a couple of sights and get a bit of variety other than major cities! This invariably meant heading inland […]

After 6 weeks it was unfortunately time for me to leave Vietnam. Although keeping a tight schedule isn’t really a concern of mine at the moment, there are a couple of things I want to knock off the list and occasionally things need to be booked in advance; like my upcoming tour to North Korea in April. With the goal in mind to get from South East Asia to Amsterdam without using a plane, this meant that the logical move would be to spend March in China. […]