The Backstreet Hostel offers free transfers to some of the sights in town, so we booked one for Tuesday.

We were very happy about the late-ish pickup at 10:00 and the driver dropped us as the Solitary Beauty Peak in town. Like all the other sights in town, they charged an extortionate entrance fee for a little park with a few halls and a 152m high peak. The view from the top was not too great - partly due to the weather (it was raining all day) and the ugly buildings in between the karst hills around town.

A bit dissapointed, our driver picked us up at 11:30 to go to the Reed Flute Cave, 5km northwest of the city. Despite the high entrance price, the cave was worth visiting - it’s very big and again the stalactites and stalagmites were coloured by floodlights. This time our tour guide could actually speak a little English and tried very hard to explain the sights to us. From the caves we took a bamboo raft across 2 lakes (which was actually only 1 big lake devided into 2, but this was the raft owner’s biggest selling point!) to the parking area from where we caught the bus back to town.

We had a lazy afternoon and spent a few hours on the internet before dinner.

On Wednesday we decided to make our own way to the terraced rice fields called the Dragon’s Backbone. We had to catch 3 different busses to make the 90-odd km journey and we arrived in Ping’an at 14:40 after having left Guilin at 09:25.

At this stage we realised that a package tour to this place might have been worth the cash, as we had very little time left to explore. Unfortunately the day was a complete wash-out from the word go, but we had been hoping for a break in the weather as we only had this one chance to see it. In Ping’an, where the various trails through the terraces start, it was pooring down heavily with rain, but we pushed on with our one little umbrella.

After having progressed about 500 meters up the hill, a thick fog bank rolled in amazingly swiftly and within minutes we could not see further than a few meters. We promptly called it a day, backtracked to the bus stand and managed to get a 15:00 direct bus back to Guilin. It was a 9 hour, 180km round-trip for the pleasure of 15 minutes in the pooring rain.. some days are stones.

To top off a slightly irritating day, Jan had a small disaster as we walked through the front door of the Hostel. We had been covering the camera and lense with a flimsy little sling-bag to protect it from the rain, and it was right at this point that the strap broke and the camera fell a solid three feet onto the concrete floor. The average point-&-shoot might have bounced once or twice, but this camera/lense combination weighs in at around 2.5kg, and it as if it plugged when it hit the deck.

The lense-cap was fused to the filter and the batery door broke off, but amazingly the camera body still seems to operate and the lense came off unscathed by the looks of things. Thanks Canon!

A relaxed evening and following morning brought us to a noon departure for Yangshuo, and the promise of more sublime scenery.

If you can’t see the slideshow above click here.

After leaving Heng Shan, we headed further south to Guilin. The bus trip from Heng Shan to Hengyan was only an hour, but there we could only get a bus at 15:00 to Guilin. Having arrived just after 10:00, this was not ideal so we decided to go to the train station instead. It was raining very hard all the way there and by the time we arrived in Hengyan the roads were completely flooded - so much so that people were walking almost knee-deep in the water!

As we had no idea how far the train station was, we got in a taxi only to find that the taxi driver has doctored his meter and it was going about 3 times as fast as it should have. After the hugely overpriced ride we heard that the only train that day to Guilin was leaving at 15:30 and the tickets were even more than the bus. Still raining at this stage, we headed back to the bus station and sat there (with our soaked bags) until 15:00.

The bus took 5 hours to do the 300km to Guilin and we arrived at about 20:00. Tired after another bumpy bus ride, we walked to the closest hostel but they were fully booked. We managed to get a very good rate at a little hotel next door from the hostel and checked in for 1 night. We had a flyer from another hostel in the center of town, so we walked there and made a reservation for the next 3 nights (at the same rate, but clean rooms and a much nicer atmosphere).

Guilin is a beautiful, scenic city with lots of karst hills and the Li River running through it, but the booming tourist trade has made it a challenge to enjoy its charms. The area around the bus and train stations are very bling with flashing, neon lights everywhere - not really the tranquil atmosphere we’ve seen on pictures and expected. But walking further north the city changes into pedestrianised streets with many little shops and cafe-style restaurants.

We ended our first night in Guilin with a very nice alfresco dinner in the city’s “Walking Street”. We pointed to very interesting looking dishes the Chinese family next to us had ordered and the waitress told us that if we ordered the same dishes off the English menu, the price is almost double. Aparently this is very common in Guilin to overcharge foreigners in restaurants.

Monday morning we checked into the Backstreet Youth Hostel we had reserved. It has a fantastic location and is a really great place with super friendly and helpfull staff (that can speak very good English).

The Lonely Planet raves about the Seven Star Park, so that was our first visit. The tourist sights in town levy heavy entry fees and we paid quiet a bit to see a relatively nice park (according to the book one of China’s most picturesque city parks, but we have our doubts), a small hill supposedly resembling a camel, a little, delapidated zoo and 2 caves (of which one was closed).

The Seven Star Cave was actually very impressive with a capacious chamber filled with huge stalactites and stalagmites coloured by floodlights. We had to follow a Chinese tour guide through the caves that only switched on the lights as the group approached a bizarrely named stalactite or stalagmite. As soon as the group moved forward, the lights would go off immediately, so there is a very small window of opportunity to take photos.

We were back at the hostel at around 19:00 and just relaxed for the rest of the evening, chatting to one of the staff members and learning about local life in Guilin.

If you can’t see the slideshow above click here.

Another day, another long distance bus double header..

We left Nanchang at 9:00 on a 6 hour mission to Changsha (the capital on Hunan Province), where we had to change and get a 2nd bus to Heng Shan. Of course we arrived at Changsha’s northern bus station and had to depart from the southern bus station; and only figured this out after much frantic sign-language and phrase-book pointing.

We finally arrived at Nanyue - meaning Southern Peak, the name given to the village that markes the base of the Heng Shan mountain range - just before 18:00; 9 hours after setting off on the 400-odd km journey.

It was a bumpy ride and a few of the locals had steadily been filling up car-sick bags on the way down. Marizanne offered some water to a mother and her daughter who was suffering from motion sickness. They were extremely grateful and, when we arrived in Heng Shan in the pooring rain, insisted that we take their umbrella. We’ve said it before, but these people really are so giving in spite of having so little.

Standing on the sidewalk, looking lost and paging through the guidebook as we so often do when just having arrived in a new spot and still getting our bearings, we were approached by an old lady who offered accomodation just around the corner. We gladly accepted and after Marizanne gave the room a once-over, checked in for two nights. It was seriously dirty and in need of a paint job, but dirt cheap - and of course thunderous rain often makes one go for the first option.

We settled in and, once there was a break in the rain, went out to look around and get something to eat. On our way out our granny inn-keeper requested that we have dinner in her little restaurant by writing the words “are you rice” on a piece of paper. We felt we had to diversify a bit and decide to hunt for something a little more stable in town.

Heng Shan is the southernmost of China’s five Taoist mountains and represents fire among the five primordial elements of Chinese philosophy. Reputedly kings and emperors once came here to hunt and make sacrifices to earth & heaven. Not counting Song Shan, which we had previously missed because of the weather, this was to be our 3rd Taoist quest.

We knew that the hike up the mountian took about 4 hours and, since we were planning on getting a minibus back down, decided to forget about alarm clocks. We started the climb around 11:00 and found it to be a little less scerene then what we’ve come to expect from China’s holy mountains.

At some stage, the authorities decided it would be a good idea to build a 2 lane paved road winding from the village all the way to Wishing Harmony Peak, the mountains highest peak. Loads of bikes, private cars and tour busses smoke their way on the 8km track and blow their horns at anything that moves (anyone who has visited Asia will know that any form of vehicle operation requires absolutely no driving skills, but simply a heavy hooter-hand).. taking away a little bit of the aura of the place.

In many places the walking trail deviated from the road, but one was never too far from the smell of automotive fumes. The miseries of the combustion engine aside, the scenery was nice and we were treated with many small temples and monasteries dotted along the way. The going was fairly good, but with a heavily overcast sky there was the constant threat of rain and the possibility of having any kind of view from lookout points were washed away.

Reaching the top was unfortunately a bit of an anticlimax also, with a rather bland looking temple plotted next to a heaving little parking lot.. those hooters were starting to get to us..

To top things off, in spite of loads of mini busses wizzing around, we weren’t able to get a ride down. Our pleading requests for portage were only met with an abrupt wave of the hand and mostly rather rude brush-offs. Finally we clued together that there was an official bus stop 4 km down the mountain - not very far really, but we had not planned on 4 extra km’s of ascending steps.

We started down and to our joy found the busses parked only about 2km down the hill and paid our way with a smile.

Back in town we had quick Skype catch-ups with the folks and went for a very late dinner in a proper local joint before turning in. The morning promised more joys in the way of long-distance buses..

If you can’t see the slideshow above click here.

We spent the night at a hotel, Xingqiu Hotel, opposite the Nanchang train station (again, one we found in the Lonely Planet). It was nothing fancy and besides the cockcroaches running around, quite acceptable.

We bought train tickets for Changsha (our next destination) yesterday for 17:00 this afternoon, but realised that this will not give us enough time to do everything. So, we decided to go to the train station very early (07:00) to change the tickets (not an easy thing to do..). As usual in China, all the remaining trains for the same day were already full, so we headed for the bus station (about 2km away). There we found out that there was a 08:00 bus to Changsha the next morning and we bought the tickest straight away. The next thing was to try and cancel our train tickets, so we went back to the station and managed to sell them to a tout outside for about 80% of the value - a better rate than through the actual ticket office.

The main reason for coming to Nanchang was to visit 3 ancient villages not far from there. It was a bit of a mission to get there - we first had to take a bus to a little town, Anyi, 1.5 hours away. In Anyi we were lucky to find the local bus station in an alley opposite the main station, from where we took a minibus (which only leaves when it is completely full) to Shibi. We got dropped off in the middle of nowhere in Shibi and took a three-wheeled motorbike to the first village, Luotiancun.

The stone alleys and ancient houses with dark stone walls plastered with red sand and grass gave this little village a lot of caracter. Luotiancun has a beautiful backdrop of fields and hills that gives it a very special charm. We wandered the tight maze of lanes with handworked pumps, chickens roaming about and smiling faces popping out of doorways around every corner. Everyone was very friendly and one old lady even came out running with an icecream for each of us when we walked passed her house.

From Luotiancun it is only a 500m walk through fields of rapeseed plants, passing waterbuffalo cooling off in streams, to the next village, Shuinan. As in the first village, Shuinan has a very special feel with its old barns, uneaven stone paths, authentic houses with their owners sleeping in the doorways and chillies drying in the sun everywhere. Again, the inhabitants were lovely and here we each got given a piece of watermelon from 2 little, old women.

A further 500m walk was the larger Jingtai - a village with a 1400-year-old history. We spent 2 hours walking through these 3 villages and Jan managed to take about 250 photos!

Just to mention again how great the locals were, 3 of them offered us a free ride back to the town of Anyi where we caught the bus back to Nanchang. None of them could speak a word of English, but they were very friendly and helpful.

It was a great day-out and back in Nanchang we had dinner at a Chinese canteen-type restaurant. These dinners are always interesting (no English menu or English speaking staff), but we managed to have a great meal and everything we ordered were very tasty.

If you can’t see the slideshow above click here.

We were in two minds about the amount of time we were to spend in Tunxi - our base for exploring the south of Anhui Province. After the wonderful day visiting the towns of Xidi & Hongcun, the scales were tipped in favour of a rest-day and we spent the whole of Sunday doing stacks of laundry, processing & uploading photos, Skyping the parents and sampling a selection of dishes from the Hostel’s own restaurant.

Monday morning began at 4:55.. The bus to Huang Shan mountain was scheduled to depart from the hostel at 6:00 sharp, but at 6:30 we found ourselves sitting in the bus in front of the Hostel, waiting for two girls who had been waiting for the breakfast to arrive.. Don’t ask!

Arriving at the town of Tangkou around 7:45, we still had to get another bus to the base of the mountain’s western side. Finally we kicked off the hike at 8:15 - more than 3 hours after we woke up, at a spot about 50km from where we stayed. Oh well, that’s China for you.

It was a near-perfect day and we were preparing for a scourcher as we started at the immediate steep incline of the endless stone steps. At that stage we were still in the valley with no direct sun-shine luckily, but within 15 minutes we noticed a bit of light mist starting to roll in from the west. Of course we kept on going but as we progressed it got steadily worse and within the first hour we were completely enclosed in a white-out of sorts. The fact that we couldn’t see in front of us for more than about 20 meters and that it was almost totally wind-still created an eary, yet mystical atmosphere. Everything went very quite apart from the occasional distant voices of Chinese tourists further down the hill.

As we progressed onwards & upwards the inclines became more serious and people coming from above (they had spent the night on top and were on their way down) were warning of slippery surfaces and other ‘dangers’. Being the all-concouring explorers that we are, we paid no heed to these plebs and carried on..

We reached the top of ‘Heavenly Capital Peak’ - the first of 2 peaks we had scheduled for the day and the 2nd highest of the cluster - with relative ease in the end and had a spot of chow before making our way down into the 2nd valley for the main peak.

To our dismay we walked smack bang into a big public notice saying that the ‘Lotus Flower Peak’ was closed. We later learned that they took turns in closing one of the two peaks for a period of 5 years to give the natural habitat a chance to recover from human intrution. Good idea, we thought, but it did mean we couldn’t plant the SA flag on top of the 1873m pinnicle. We’ll do it next time.

Making our way towards the eastern side of the range we crossed the ‘Jade Screen Peak’ and a few other lesser bumps before reaching the cable-car station. At this stage the weather was looking decidedly nasty and we chose to pay the extra 80Yaun each for the ride down the hill. While queueing for the cars the moving lines suddenly stopped and remained stationary for a while. After a while Marizanne went to enquire and we heard that they had stopped the service due to the rain and lightning. Because we were inside the station we had not noticed the terrential downpoor outside and it was only then that we started to hear the thunder.

2 hours and one power-outage later and we were on our way down the mountain. We shared a taxi back to Tangkou with two very cool guys from Shandong Province (we had been there of course and could share storied of our quest of Mount Tai about a month before). Almost being conned by an evil taxi driver into thinking there were no more busses back to Tunxi for the day, Jan told the guy exactly where he could/should go to (in the nicest possible way) before hopping on the 70 min bus-ride back to our lovely Hostel.

All-&-all this really was nothing compared to the grualing Hua Shan mountain (note the slight difference in the name) we did a few weeks ago. It was sad that we had such little visibility from the top, but we still had a great time and saw some beautiful sights.

We had planned on doing two mountains while in Tunxi: Huang Shan, but also Jiuhua Shan (another one of China’s 4 sacred Buddhist mountains). However, because of serious entry fees and a lack of enthusism for two mountains in a row, we had another rest-day yesterday. More laundry, internet-ing and eating..

This morning we got the 08:20 bus from Tunxi arriving in Jiujiang at 14:00, in order to catch the 14:30 from there bringing us to Nanchang in the province of Jiangxi around 16:20. We’re here to explore a couple of villages just outside of town, but more about that later.

If you can’t see the slideshow above click here.

Another day of busses, ferries, trains & taxis has brought us from Putuoshan to Tunxi. We arrived at 20:45 at what looked like a parking lot in the middle of now where. Everything was completely dark and there was no one around. We had no idea where we were and how far it would be to the hostel, so we took the only taxi in sight.

The hostel, Koala International Youth Hostel, is opposite the train station and perfect for our needs. We don’t usually take organised tours, but the hostel organised a bus with entrance tickets and lunch to 2 famous villages in the area at a very good price, so we booked it straight away. Usually tourists have to get a visitors permit for this area, but they cancelled it a few months ago. The only expense now is the extortionate entrance fee to each village. The tour bus picked us up at the hostel at 08:00 Saturday morning and we met a very nice Australian guy, Andrew, and Chinese girl, Ellen, on the bus.

The main reason for coming to Tunxi was to visit the 2 ancient villages, Xidi and Hongcun. As Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was filmed here, we had very high expectations.

Our first stop was Xidi - a beautiful village built between 960-1279 AD. Included in our tour was a Chinese guide, but we decided to wonder the streets and alleys at our own pace. It almost feels like stepping back in time in this picturesque little town with water ways which flow through the village and green beans drying in baskets outside houses.

From Xidi we took the bus again to Hongcun, only about 7km further. Before exploring the sites, we first stopped for lunch in a little restaurant at the entrance of the town. Our group was sat down at a large round table and we didn’t know what was going to happen next. But very soon the green tea started flowing and the food started arriving - one dish after another.

After stuffing ourselves with all sorts of Chinese delicasies (nothing too strange though), we headed for the streets of Hongcun. Another beautiful, old village with many stone bridges, girls washing clothes in the streams and wrinkled, old ladies baking ‘moon cakes’ (sweet, round pastry) on every corner.

After visiting these amazing villages, we definately want to watch Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon again to see if we recognise any of the locations.

Back at the hostel Andrew invited us to join him for dinner at a famous restaurant in town - there is no menu, instead you walk around a huge buffet where raw or plastic versions of all the dishes are on display, including all drinks and desserts. You then write down the numbers of the dishes you want, without actually knowing how they will prepare the food. The restaurant was absolutely packed and we had to wait a while for a table, but it was worth it. A few of the dishes we ordered were a bit of a lucky dip, but everything was very tasty. A perfect ending to a very nice day.

If you can’t see the slideshow above click here.

If you can’t see the slideshow above click here.

Departing from Hangzhou just after 10:00 yesterday morning, we sat through a 30min local bus, 3.5 hour train, another 15min local bus, a 1 hour long distance bus and a 1.5 hour ferry before arriving at Putuoshan Island around 16:30, having travelled only about 400km.

We were met by a group of touts from local hotels and viliages and after a short delibiration we went with the cheapest private-accommodation option, only about 500m from the port. As always we had a relatively comfortable room with air-con, TV, shower and sit-down toilet. Unfortunately the neighbours (home-owner & other locals) turned out to be a bit loud, but it wasn’t too much of a problem.

Putuoshan is a small island, not too far from Shanghai, and has one of the 4 holy Chinese Buddhist mountains - which was the main reasons for our visit. That, and the fact that the local TV stations advertises this place like crazy.

Specialising in seafood, we tried one of the many restaurants which had large baths, containing all sorts of live sea creatures, on display outside. As always, there was no English menu and enquiring about prices seemed to produce hugely overpriced quotes from the manager. Not wanting to fork out too much we had to settle for something a little less exotic and went for dishes containing land-roaming animals.

This morning we got up at a lazy 9:30am and got ready for the day’s adventures. Compared to the other holy mountains Mount Putuo is an absolute puppy, only reaching a hight of 291m above sea level, but with the heat, humudity and steps we’ve learned not to underestimate any mountainous apponent. We set out from the south of the island and walked the 3-odd kilometers to the start of the trail on the northern side. As usual, there were dozzens of stalls dotting the path up the hill selling provisions and all sorts of trinkits.

Reaching the ’summit’ 1.5 hours after leaving home (we couldn’t actually get to the very top as there is a massive military compound built on top..), we had plenty of time to explore the unusual Huiji Buddhist temple close to the peak. We had hoped to have lunch in the temple, prepared by monks at a select few of these temples, but contrary to what we have read everywhere, this option was non-existent.

We spent some time taking photos and roaming the different halls before starting the trip back down. The 2nd category of sights on the island was the various caves, each one having an annoingly remote location relative to everything else. We first set off from the base of the hill for the most famous and revered cave of the lot. ‘Cave of Buddhist Sounds’ is reputed to mimic the sounds of chanting monks when the waves crash inside.

We walked in scourching heat for about 3 km along a non-pedestrian friendly road before reaching the cave, only to find out that it was closed for renovation and we only had the option of looking down at the small construction site from the cliff-side. We had to look at the bright side and counted ourselves lucky not to have been charged anything at the entry gate.

We got a bus back to the main town and, after deciding that caving was not our thing anyway, proceeded to visit the Puji temple and afterwards swing past the signature ‘carved rock’ - a massive rock with bright red carvings, balanced in a precarious position and which appears on all postcards and promotional material of the island.

After all the mandetory sights we spent a bit of time relaxing on Hundred Step Beach, a short walk from town, and had some well deserved snacks and refreshments. Chinese life-guards are particularly intollerent of bathers disobaying the rules, regularly shouting commands over megaphones and chasing people around.

With the day drawing to a close at this stage, we had to make our way to the south-eastern most tip of the island to get a glimpse of the 33m high golden statue of the Goddess of Mercy ‘Guan Yin’. It was well worth the hike and the 6 Yuan entry fee, and we got a lovely view of the setting sun from the Buddhist pavilion.

Knowing we had a long travel day ahead of us we turned in early.

If you can’t see the slideshow above click here.

The train arrived in Hangzhou station at 10:48 on Monday morning and it was as if stepping into a steamroom.. It is unbearably hot and the humidity must be close to 100%, so we are permanently soaked!

We found the most amazing hostel, 4 Eyes Hostel, about 1km from the West Lake. Even though Hangzhou is a big city, it feels like we’re on a tropical island. The hostel is located among rolling green hills with very nice, clean and modern double rooms (we even have our own balcony) and a beautiful courtyard where delicious food and drinks are served - we know because we’ve eaten 4 meals at the hostel already!

The West Lake is the main attraction in Hangzhou and after we checked in, we went straight there. There are walking and cycling paths all around and a few causeways crossing the lake. It is absolutely beautiful, but very big - it takes about 2-3 hours to walk around the lake. Due to the extreme heat, we opted for the convenient, sightseeing buggy-option. Going back to the hostel feels like going to another world as you leave the city behind and retreat into the lush hillsides.

After a relaxing, late morning in our airconditioned room (which we didn’t really want to leave), we did some laundry and then had a very nice breakfast in the hostel courtyard. We had a lengthy internet session to try and sort out some perceived problems with our blog, but everything seems to be working okay now. At about 13:30 we rented 2 bicycles down the road and started a trail through the hills around the facinity of the hostel. We made a quick stop at the China Tea Museam (just too late for the free tea tasting though!) and then sweated it out peddaling up steep inclines all the way to Lingjing Tea Village.

It is a beautiful setting with tea plantations everywhere and locals selling the famous Lingjing tea leaves on every corner. From here we couldn’t muster the strenght to cycle further up the mountain (close to dehydration by now) and made our way down to the lake again. We cycled through Hangzhou city centre and made a few stops to relax on the waterfront.

On the way back to the hostel, we picked up a few precious, cold beers from a little local cornershop and enjoyed the stunning sunset from our balcony.

We are really sad to leave this oasis tomorrow but our next destination, Putuoshan (an island off the east coast of Zhejiang Province - just south of Shanghai), promises to be as good, if not better.

If you can’t see the slideshow above click here.

The train pulled into Shanghai Railway Station around 15:00 Thursday afternoon and we took the Metro to a hotel we found in the Lonely Planet. They turned out to be quite expensive (like most hotels in Shanghai), but nevertheless we checked in for 1 night, mainly because of the good location. While walking around the main shopping area we found a youth hostel at a much better rate, but they were fully booked and we had to be wait listed for the weekend. Thursday evening was spent walking along the Bund - Shanghai’s embankment - people and skyscraper watching.

First impression: Shanghai is very impressive, just very hot! The average temperatures are around mid 30 degrees with about 85% humidity! We don’t think we have ever sweated as much! At least all buildings are airconditioned, but walking on the streets you constantly have to dogde the water literally spraying from ancient aircon units. There are loads of foreigners in the city (an unusual site for us at this stage) - even more than in Beijing.

Friday morning we got up early to visit the Yu Yuan Garden before we had to check out of the hotel. It is a tranquil Chinese garden with beautiful ponds, stone bridges and bonsai trees. The area around the garden is full of little souvenir shops, traditional tea houses and stalls selling steamed buns (delicious!). We ended up buying a stunning (but fairly big) photo album that Jan is carrying in his suitcase at the moment. When we went back to the hostel they had some cancellations so were able to check us in for the remaining 3 nights.

That evening we went to the New Pudong area - the business district south of the river with many new, modern buildings. It is possible to take a “tourist sightseeing tunnel” under the river to the other side, but as this is very commercialised and cost a small fortune, we decided to do it the local way and took the commuter ferry across (this time we were the only 2 white faces in sight and only 1 Yuan for both us!). We then went straight to the Jin Mao tower. Until 2007 it was the tallest building in China (420m high with 88 storeys), the fifth tallest in the world by roof height and the seventh tallest by pinnacle height. The views of the city were amazing from the observation deck and we got some great night photos.

Saturday was a relaxing day and we spent most of the day indoors trying to escape the scorching 37 degrees outside!

On Sunday, our last day in Shanghai, we joined the rest of the Chinese tourists and went on one of the fastest trains in the world - the Maglev Train that goes to Pudong International Airport. The train can reach 350 km/h in 2 minutes, with a maximum speed in normal operation of 431 km/h and takes 7 minutes and 20 seconds to complete the 30km journey. It was something to watch the cars on the highway next to us - it almost seemed like they were standing still! Like the other tourists, we got off at the airport, just to get onto the next Maglev train back to the city.

We left Shanghai on a fast train to Hangzhou (about 200km away) this morning at 09:30.

If you can’t see the slideshow above click here.

Today is day 100 since we’ve left London on the 26th March 2008.

To date we’ve covered 34,635km and spent a total of 23 days and 4 hours travelling on one of the 66 trains, 44 busses and 8 ferries along the way.

We cannot believe how quickly the time has gone. We are still having the times of our lives and are looking forward to the (now extended) remaining 6 months.

Thanks so much for all the messages and support over the last 3 months!