China, 3 weeks in.....

And so we've been in China now for 3 weeks. Highlights include:
climbing the great wall of china early in the morning before the tourists arrived and the heat began
visiting the holy mountain of Wu Tai Shan and getting there as soft snow flakes began to fall... (it was so cold there we had to put our packs up against the door to keep the draft out and even still you could see the curtains gently swaying in the chilling breeze!!) thank goodness for thermals
seeing the terracotta warriors in situ with Gerry our tour guide leading the way and getting us in ahead of the larger groups. A lot of people complain that they are a bit of an anti-climax because they're located in this big hangar but i thought it was all quite spectacular!! Out of 7000 (all unique) warriors & horses only 1 was found intact. Such dedication putting that jigsaw puzzle back together!
seeing the pandas in Chengdu at feeding time (and watching the pups wrestling)
food food glorious food - especially sugared ginger pieces, mantou (soft bread like buns), gongbao chicken, 4 seasons green beans, spicy sechuan peppers in a chilli peanut mix, actually sechuan peppers in everything. The spicier the better, won't even look at a dish that hasn't got a Sechuan pepper or two in it. I'm contemplating carrying our chilli & Sechuan pepper mix around in my handbag to add to potentially bland food, AKA Renu's grandmother style. One of the best dishes we've had was a tofu dish with Sechuan pepper, garlic, ginger, dried chilli, fresh chilli, fermented black bean, edamame beans and tofu- man that dish was TASTY.
drinking Wulang tea on the river with the locals and trying to 'avoid' the 'temptation' of getting an ear clean from wandering ear cleaning man and his frightening array of tools...
meeting up with one of Kieran's colleagues from Ofgem & her budding to do a bit of sightseeing (and drinking) in Xi'an and Chengdu. When it comes to Chinese food it really is the more the merrier
playing Mahjong with the locals (thank goodness we weren't betting or it would have been a problem and we wouldn have ended up a few Yuan short) That game is complicated but really good, i can see us getting addicted to it and it replacing nuts and rummikub, although you need 3 or 4 people- any takers??
Climbing up a holy mountain that looked like one of those scroll paintings- all clouded in mist. I admit we did cheat a bit and got the chairlift part of the way (we were pressed for time, I swear!) but nobody told my legs that we took the 'easy' way - they are still sore today from the numerous steps
getting a Chinese massage complete with scraping and cupping. Ouch. Good ouch...
being proud of ourselves whenever we manage to buy train tickets from the station with our 'limited' Chinese language skills (computer screens and occasional friendly staff sure do help this process)