day 6

flight back to beijing saturday morning. Cindy took us to the airport dressed in her traditional clothes.
Everyone was ready for a nap at the sommerset hotel but the kids got bored so we went for a walk. ended up at hard rock cafe! heaps of fun. yummy chips, icecream and milkshakes.

Day 5

Friday in Li-Jiang. did some great shopping with Cindy our guide. watched a sing/dance show that night. The guy (ill find a photo) Cindy told us was 'seven thirty... i mean seventy three' hehe. We visited lots of shops along canals which was very cute. The trip up the mountain was loonngg, had a 2 hour wait at least. but we managed to spend the whole time chatting to a group of chinese tourists who were learnin/teachin english.Some of the kids, 17 yearolds, did amazingly well. I think they enjoyed having someone to practise with. The Cox kids managed to get a few photos up there.. the tourists are often more interested in the 'beautiful australians' than the scnery about them.. this happened at most of the places we went. bus trip back down the mountain was pretty boring except for the part where we got to ride a yack!! oh my goodness.. it cost a few dollars to ride and the same for a picture.. in australia i can imagine the ride being $20 and $50 for a picture. we couldnt resist. although i think the one bec had was a cow in disguise, she wasnt happy.

day 4

-Traditional Dali people wear fun costumes, the minority grop are the Bi people. Costumes represent teh snow, flowers, moon and wind.
-We visited an island with a fishing villiage on it. Some of the community had never left the island!
-Tea ceremony in the afternoon, complete with dancing and chinese singing which we didnt understand.
- 3 hour bus trip to Li-Jiang. 2 hours into it we came across a huge shed which contained a jewellry store looking like david jones! it was glamorous but just in the middle of nowhere.

Day 3

Our tour guide Roger picked us up on rainy wednesday morning. We travelled to the stone forest in the morning and Western Hill in the afternoon.


Plane to Dali. Stayed at a nice hotel.

Day 2

Breakfast was a strange assortment of cereal, lettuce, toast, gerkins, tomato, rice, bacon, curry, eggs.... so strange.
Dad and I walked around the block to kill time.. plenty to see. the witches sweeping the road,people on bikes, traffic, traffic, crazy intersections, lots of funny shops. and bad smells.
Flight to Kunming at 12ish. then roger drove us to our new place. met the family there and heard about their travels!!
Then off to hit the shopping/markets of mainstreet spring city. lots of junk. but i managed to buy a shirt $5 and said thankyou in chinese. the lady was most impressed. people tend to know HELLO and youre welcome. which is difficult the R and L.
lots of shoes. belts. bags. food. fruit. bikes.
Dinner was mixed.. 3 of us had buffet which was chinese. and the others had spagetti and burgers and milkshakes.. yumm.. at least they didnt go hungry. will get photos later.. too difficult to figure out on the laptop here.
so now off to bed. exhausted from the stress of crossing 2 roads today.
tomorrow night is another flight out...

China Day 1

9/07/07
Flew about 12 hours to Bejing. Watched becoming jane, slept, ate, watched saturday night fever, slept, ate and finally got there late at night. driver wang took us to the garden hotel or something. no one spoke much english besides HELLO. which they yell at you every so often.
Saw Russ, a family friend from australia and he promises to take us shopping later in the week.
after i figured out the shower etc.. it was definately bed time.