The 1st of June is Children’s Day in China.  We were due to fly to London today but changed our flight plans so that we could experience Children’s Day in China.  We had no idea exactly what Children’s Day was all about but since we were travelling with two chidren we thought it was a good enough reason to find out!

As it turned out we decided to celebrate Children’s Day a...

We woke early to get ourselves ready for a 7.10 am pick-up by the tour driver at the hostel.  We were joined by a number of other people from our hostel and the other YHAs in Beijing.  We had thought about trying to get public transport to the wall but after we sat in the horrendous traffic we were glad that we just paid money through the hostel to organise it all.  It...

Our day didn’t start with Peking Duck but certainly ended with it.  How could we come this far and not try the signature dish?!  We asked at the hostel to recommend somewhere local to eat duck and they recommended a restaurant about 2 km away. We set off with a piece of paper in hand with a basic map and the restaurant name in Chinese and pinyin ‘Jin Ba Wan’.

We found it...

We had to see Tiannamen Square and the Forbidden City as they are both must do attractions in Beijing.  Our day started with a lovely breakfast in the hostel courtyard and then we were off again to the train station.     

  We got off at the station at the southern end of Tiannamen Square.  It was late morning by the time we arrived and very hot so we didn’t stand around...

I’ve been in Asia for 4 months and have been to Indonesia,  Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan and China. There are millions of people on motorbikes in these countries because they are cheap, small and can swerve in and out of busy traffic. As they don’t have cars they carry all sorts of crazy stuff on their motorbikes.  Here is my list of some things I’ve seen...

We woke to our first full day in Beijing and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast in the hostel’s serene courtyard.  

We used the common room as a study for the boys to catch up on some school work and got ready to start our day of sightseeing.  First stop, the Summer Palace.  We caught the train to Xiyuan station and were immediately bombarded by taxi drivers wanting the drive...

We walked the 500 metres to the bus stop down the street from the Citadine at the Melody Hotel in Xian.  The bus goes directly to the airport and stops at the two terminals. We got off at the wrong terminal and to walk to the next terminal; lucky we had a luggage trolley.  We did the check in thing and got our tickets, then went through another security check and got to our...

The hotel/apartment complex we were staying in had an adjoining restaurant.  Here they served a good buffet breakfast. Our room came with one breakfast – yep, one. Useless for a family of four so we asked if we could use our 4 days of breakfast so that we could all eat together one day.  So, that is how we started this day, all eating a hearty breakfast together.

We had no...

Finally the day had arrived – Terracotta Warriors Day!  I was really looking forward to seeing the guys myself.  Our tour guide Mary picked us up at 8.30 am and we joined an Australian couple and a US couple in the minivan for our day tour.  

First we headed off to the Big Goose Pagoda; named because when the monks were hungry one day and prayed for food, a flock of geese...

We woke to a wet dreary day in Xian, which also happened to be our wedding anniversary.  After breakfast in our mini apartment we headed out in our raincoats to wonder the streets of the Muslim Quarter of Xian.  What a delight!  It was really busy on a Sunday with everyone out, even given the bad weather.  We discovered all sorts of great street foods and enjoyed the people...