Yes, it was very steep and quite an effort. The girls handled it really well. We walked uphill for near on two hours to the point of the wall where you can go no further due to disrepair. Coming down took about an hour – it’s quite difficult on the descent due to some of the very steep inclines. We all collapsed for an hour or so and then had dinner. A surprise awaited one of the girls; a lavish birthday cake organised through our trusty guide, Olive. She was thrilled. Even better was the after party in one of the rooms. The girls kindly asked us to attend and we shook up the dance floor!! (sort of, in an older woman kind of way). It was lovely of them to include us in the festivities. Our student had a birthday worthy of rememberance.

We awoke to the sound of knocking on our door and news that two of the girls had fallen foul of the dreaded lergy. They weren’t up to the hike so I stayed back while the girls went with our other staff member and guide to Jinshanglang where they began the hike back to Simitai. I’d told everybody that I had found that an easier hike last year but my recollection must have been awry. They all came back saying it was much harder.

We weren’t happy with the girls staying at Simitai while there was illness in the group so we arranged to return to Beijing and the hotel we have been staying at. The girls were very happy about that, particularly in light of the wonderful buffet breakfast they know will be on offer tomorrow morning. Tomorrow we spend the morning at the Summer Palace and then we hit the Silk Market in the afternoon. THAT is causing considerable excitement to say the least!

Nearly at the end of our journey through China. Mark Spahr asked on Twitter if I could comment about what is blocked in China. I haven’t had a lot of time for internet surfing, but I have noticed I can’t access PB Wiki and all wordpress blogs. You don’t get any message saying they are blocked for any particular reason, just the ‘internet explorer cannot open this page’ routine. Some hotels have had free wireless access, some have no access at all and this hotel has cable access that is very pricey by Chinese standards. It is also an incredibly slow connection despite the cable. Mobile phone technology is everywhere here. I was receiving messages on the Great Wall as I have done on every part of the journey. I even received a message from my son’s teacher while we were hiking in the Rice Terrace fields to inform me about some poor behaviour on his part. I had to explain to her that I was on a hike in ChinaI I’ve been writing a blog for the families from my school while I am here. I’m using blogger on the advice of Jane Lowe who informed me it wasn’t blocked in China. It’s been great. The parents are commenting and have all expressed how much they appreciate the feedback in this asynchronous form. It’s a public blog. I’m hoping it will have an impact at school level in helping people to understand that this technology can be very useful for communication purposes and that it doesn’t represent the perceived danger some assume with its public nature. Before leaving I contacted all of the parents and checked that they were comfortable with their daughter’s image being on the Web. There was unanimous support. Having the mini PC has been a bonus purely for the ease of carting it around. It fits in my son’s pencil case! Gotta sign off and get some sleep in preparation for the big day tomorrow. Have to say I am looking forward to going home. 18 days is a long time away from family. My son said to me on a skype call that it felt like I’d been away for a year. He’s 9, and it would feel like that to him. Time to get home for some much needed hugs.

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Yesterday we left in the morning for our pilgramage to the Terracotta Warriors museum. It’s an hour long drive fron Xian and we used the time in the bus for some karaoke singing. I don’t quite know if you’d call it singing, but it was a lot of fun. The Terracotta warriors didn’t fail to disappoint. It is a real moment to walk into Pit 1 and see them laid out before you, row after row after row. The girls were all very impressed. It is wonderful to see them gain such an appreciation of the historical significance of this find. Olive, our new guide, was terrific. She gave us commentary as we walked through the pits and we were in command of knowledge that gave us greater insight. Once again we seemed to be the main items of attraction at times with many a Chinese person wanting to photograph us. The girls got canny in the end and started turning our cameras on them which was enough to discourage a few! We left the museum after 2.30 and made our way to Mt. Huashan. We didn’t get to the Gondalas that took us up the mountain until nearly 5.00pm so we knew we would be completing part of the climb in the dark. The gondalas themselves caused much excitement- they go up 1600 metres on a steep incline and the girls were surprised at the height. We started the climb just after 5.00pm and it was pretty much everything I remembered from last year – up and up and up! The girls were great. It was hard, but all of them showed strength of spirit and put their all into getting to the hotel at the top of the mountain. By 6.45 most of us were at the hotel, and a few of us bringing up the rear made it by 7.00pm. It was dark but it just made for a more interesting experience. We got to see the lights of the surrounding area below.It is truly a magnificent mountain; well worth the monumental effort that is the climb up.

The hotel was basic, but it is simply amazing that there are even hotels up there. Everything on that mountain needs to be carried up. We all went to bed early ready for our 5.15 start to the day to see the sunrise. We hiked to an area where we could see it but cloud cover prevented us from getting a view. The girls were happy to begin the descent, and even happier to finally get back in the coach and sleep on the way back to Xian. On our return we celebrated with a visit to Starbucks! So nice to get a real coffee at last. Quite a number of people were accessing the free wifi there too. Bonus. We freshened up, had a lovely lunch and hit the Muslim Quarter market for the afternoon. Picked up a few nice items that will serve as fond memories from my time here. I’ll try and get a quick post in tomorrow if I can. We ride bikes around the Xian city wall tomorrow. The wall is over 600 years old and it is great hopping on a tandem bike and experiencing the 14.5km circuit. We leave in the late afternoon to catch a sleeper train to Beijing. The girls are having a wonderful experience here and we are enjoying their company. They are a pleasure to be around (when they aren’t squealing that is!) Once again I’m writing this from the hotel lobby and I can’t get pictures posted. I promise to include some of Mt.Huashan once I can use the mini PC again. Hopefully our rooms will have wireless access in Beijing.

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We had a two and half hour bus trip to the airport for our flight to Xian. Then it was an hour and a half flight to this city centre. We had to farewell our guide, Stony, at Xian airport. He has had to return to his family due to a situation there. He handed us over to our new guide, Olive, a lovely young woman who is more than capable. She has a very happy outgoing manner and has already endeared herself to the girls. We settled into our hotel, The Bell and Drum Tower, and headed into the Muslim quarter for dinner. Xian is a city, not a small town like Yangshou, and the girls were very aware of the difference. Many more people and beggars on the streets. Dinner was an interesting variety of tastes and we were thankful to not have any garden variety molluscs make an appearance!

Differences I’ve noted since my last visit in September last year. The pollution problem here seems worse. You can make out that there is a blue sky up there somewhere but the brown haze colours everything to a drab outlook. Big LCD screens dominate the city centre far more than they did last year. It has a mini Shanghai at night feel about it that was not apparent a year ago. Another interesting thing today has been the numbers of Chinese people who stop and stare at us. At the airport it was like being in a zoo. People were openly taking photos and recording video footage of us. To be honest, it was a little disconcerting. This is very different from my experience last year.Very different from the reactions of the village people with their open welcoming reception. We visit the Terracotta Warriors tomorrow and then tackle Mt. Huashan for our overnight stay on this mountain. I climbed this mountain last year and it certainly is no walk in the park. It’s a steep uphill climb for at lest two solid hours. I’m pleased to report that in my discussions with the students all realise that it is going to represent somewhat of a challenge, but they also recognise that it is going to be a challenge with great personal reward at its completion. I won’t be able to post tomorrow, but will try and do so on Thursday. Sorry no photos today. The hotel has no wireless so I’m having to use their desktops for internet connection. All of their screens are written in Chinese and I can’t figure out how to read the USB to retrive the pictures I copied to it. I’ll try and get some up on Thursday. Just when you think you’ve got a handle on technology they go and throw a barrier like language up at you!

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The ride was an easy, albeit wet, one. When we got to the Karst mountain that is Moon Hill we ascended to the peak where we saw some spectacular views. Great photo opportunity. It was a steep and steady climb that is good preparation for our Mt. Huashan climb that is coming up. We took our time coming down due to the drizzling rain and we all made it unscathed. On our return we went to a very traditional Chinese restaurant and attempted some very interesting cuisine. On the meat eating table snails were on the menu. It’s amazing what the lure of 10 Yuan will do to a person’s interest in consuming a new taste sensation. Five of the girls were up for it and succeeded in downing the mint flavoured mollusc. I did it too for absolutely no reward, just the satisfaction of meeting a challenge! I don’t think any of us are in any danger of foraging around the backyard for an alternative dinner option anytime soon.

In the afternoon we visited the Wisdom School for Girls here in Yangshuo. It was a highlight of the trip so far. We broke off into groups and visited classrooms where we were able to answer questions and ask a few of our own. The girls loved the opportunity to talk to girls of a similar age and I’m sure they realised we share much in common with the Chinese girls. The afternoon ended with our girls singing ‘Spirit’ (one of our school songs) and with the Chinese girls singing to us. A wonderful experience for both cultures.

Dinner was had and then it was off to West street for our last shopping opportunity here. Tomorrow we leave for Xian and the possibility of more exciting adventures as we make our way through China.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Mr. Long provided us with our bikes and we set off down a dirt road that led through small villages. The Chinese people were very amused by our presence and happy to shout out a hello to one and all. The children are especially keen on making some contact. The girls are delighted with the interest and respond wholeheartedly with loud ‘nee hows’ (I have no idea of the Chinese spelling of this!). It got me thinking. How would I react if a group of Chinese people were riding past my house. For a start, it’s highly unlikely I’d see them behind the fence that guards my home and if I did, I doubt I’d be excitedly running along near them to catch their attention with a smile, a welcoming ‘hello’ and a friendly wave. A shame really, the world would be a nicer place if this were our reaction to newcomers in our neighbourhoods. I know that I have felt very welcome from the villagers in China. After the ride we journeyed to our hotel in Yangshou. It is picturesque, surrounded by Karst mountains. It’s a bustling tourist precinct and has the West St market as a big drawcard. We had another delicious dinner at a local restaurant and then walked down to the Li River where we hopped on a boat and ventured out to see a fisherman and his cormorant birds engage in the traditional Chinese way of catching fish. The birds are tethered and then released. They dive into the water and catch fish, but can’t swallow them as they have a ring around their neck. The fisherman aids them in regurgitating the fish and feeds them after the work is done. Quite a few of the girls had pictures taken with a Cormorant bird on their shoulder. Today we woke to the sound of consistent rain. We had breakfast at the hotel and got ready for our bike ride. 17 kms today to a village near the Li River. We set out on what was a made road and fairly flat which made for easy riding. The rain didn’t let up and we were pretty wet. We were supposed to hike along the river but altered our plans in light of the weather conditions. We instead caught a ferry and travelled the Li River by this means. Back to the hotel and the girls were given some time to shop in the neighbouring street. Needless to say this was a highlight for them!

Dinner was a western style meal at a local restaurant and then we were off to the Water Puppet Theatre. Thankfully the rain abated somewhat and we were able to enjoy the show dressed in our complimentary ponchos. It’s a show that was directed by the man who organised the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics so it gives you some idea of the spectacle that it was. Lots of massed performance all based on the water with a love story as its central theme. Ice-Cream for all on our return and then off to bed, ready for another bike ride in Yangshou tomorrow. Hopefully little to no rain when we awake. I really would like the students to have fond memories of this place. *It’s now morning, but I couldn’t post this last night because the free wifi I was accessing dropped out. I suspect the friendly coffee shop around the corner had shut up shop for the night! Guess what? Still raining but not as heavy thank goodness.

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You probably should start thinking about what you want to be taking with you to China in terms of clothing. My advice is to pack light. There are a couple of opportunities we have along the way to get our clothes drycleaned in the hotels we stay at. I think it cost me about 70 Yuan (approx. $12.00 Aust. dollars) to get my clothes drycleaned and it was money well spent. I’m planning on packing about five T Shirts, a couple of long sleeved T Shirts, a polar fleece vest, thermals, three quarter length and full length gym pants, and an outfit that I can wear out – nicer top and pants – nothing too fancy.   

Time to think about luggage too. You are going to be carting your bag up and down steps of railway stations and along streets. You don’t want anything too heavy. I’m going to be buying a bag like the one above – one with wheels and a pull out handle. I like the fact that with these bags you can pick them up like a sports bag as well. Make sure you pack light so that you have room for some purchases along the way. If you can pack a foldable sports bag that you could take onto a plane as hand luggage this may prove wise. Last year I had to buy a bag (or two!) to store purchases I had made. 

Follow this link to see the advice the Chinese give their own people about how they should conduct themselves abroad. You’ll see quite a bit of this in China, especially what appears as No. 1 on the list!

But first, the preparation!

Our walks will commence on the 17th of August. Try and make as many of these as you can. Not only do they help us get to know each other as a group, but they help our legs to get ready for the trekking, climbing and biking we are going to be doing. Hiking boots are essential for the trip and you should endeavour to have a pair by the 17th of August so that you can start wearing them in while we are completing our walks. You don’t want to find yourself wearing new boots that aren’t worn in when you embark on a three or four hour hike on our first day in the rice terrace fields of Guilin.