Our visit to China

Rough map of where we are visiting in China

Soon we are going to visit China. An exciting adventure for me and a trip to see mum for my wife. After we've been we'll add a description and photos of the trip. We're only going for 2 weeks and we'll visit Beijing, Nanchang, Suzhou, Hangzhou and Shanghai. I won't get to see the Terracotta army in Xi-An, Hong Kong, Hainan Island, or to taste a genuine Hot-Pot in Sichuan.

We are flying into Beijing from Heathrow via Vienna with Austrian Airlines. Cheaper than flying direct but it does add an hour or so onto the journey. We're staying in the 5 star Days Hotel in Beijing, which is convienient for Beijing's centre and okay for the airport and railway station. Its less than £50 for a room for the night - Bargain!

While in Beijing we will chill out after the flight and take in Tienamen square, The summer Palace, Prince Gong's palace and maybe the Great wall, although that's a whole day trip. There's so many things to see in Beijing it's a pity we've only got two days.

After Beijing we are intending to travel to Nanchang which is where Alice's family lives. We have decided to travel to Nanchang overnight by train. This is because I have never slept on a train before so it's about time I did. Chinese trains have 3 areas: Seats, Hard beds and Soft beds. Seats can't be reserved so you may end up standing all the way. It's about a 14 hour journey from Beijing to Nanchang so that's not my first choice. A hard bed is in a 6 bed compartment, open to the corridor. A soft bed is in a closed compartment with 4 beds. The price is about the same as flying so this is the one we will pick.

Nanchang is the capital of Jiangxi province which is in the south-east of China. It borders Hunan -Chairman Mao's home province- to the west, Anhui -famous for nothing that I know of- to the north, Zhejiang to the north-east, Fujian -where the Tea comes from- to the east and Guandong -where the diseases come from- to the south. Jiangxi is famous for pottery in the olden days with many a plunder in the British museum. It's also the cradle of the communist revolution giving birth to the People's Liberation Army in 1927. We'll no doubt stroll up August 1st street named after the uprising. We're only staying in Nanchang for 3 days where we will stay in alice's flat with her parents. Unfortunately Alice has an Asian toilet which is basically a ceramic hole in the floor. I don't know how I'll cope with this as I do like a good sit down.

From Nanchang we will either fly or train to Shanghai where we will meet up with Alice's colleague and his wife and watch the Chinese Grand Prix. Despite growing up in Silverstone and living in Milton Keynes, I have never seen an F1 Grand Prix. Nothing like travelling a third of the way around the world to visit something I could see 15 miles away from home. We're staying in Alice's friend's flat who now lives in Canada, very convienient.

After the Grand Prix we will travel to Hangzhou for two nights and then to Suzhou for a night for some traditional tourist sightseeing. These are picturesque towns within a couple of hours train ride from Shanghai. We're going to spend one more day in Shanghai where we will fly back to London via Vienna. It's a pity we can't stay a while in Vienna but Alice needs a Visa to go everywhere (except China, where I need a visa - life is so complicated). Thats for next year.