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BEIJING 🇨🇳 Our last full day in China has been filled with a number of near disasters! Luckily everything has worked out...
07/08/2026

BEIJING 🇨🇳

Our last full day in China has been filled with a number of near disasters! Luckily everything has worked out but it was one of those days of travel where you have to keep your sense of humour!
First, we nearly missed the high speed train from Shanghai to Beijing - which was fairly expensive tickets! We left a little too late (repacking bags to fit in all our purchases!) and then setting off initially for the wrong train station in Shanghai 🤦‍♀️ Thankfully we had a fantastic taxi driver who weaved in and out of the traffic, giving us 10 minutes to get through all the (not inconsiderable) security and passport checks you find at every train station. We ran across the huge train station like people on a mission and arrived out of breath onto the train with minutes to spare. Oh how we laughed (we didn’t, we were too out of breath!).
Then we got to Beijing all ready to shop and explore for a few last hours. And then there was the most almighty sudden storm that hit the city. It was like a river running through the streets, the sky flashed, thunder roared, people were taking videos. Then the police arrived to hand out free ponchos to all of us sheltering in the metro doorways. It was absolute chaos.
We abandoned any chance of exploring and instead headed to our favourite Beijing vegetarian restaurant Gondelin for a proper huge last feast and it was really good.
Finally it was off to collect our luggage from the train station where we’d paid for it in left luggage. We realised the oldest had left his favourite cap in a shop there where we’d stopped for drinks. China feels so safe and of course the hat was still where he’d left it, 5 hours earlier, when we returned. The shop was, however, closed. So we looked in at it sat all forlorn on the side. A lovely manager from the shop next door tried to help, which involved another nearly hour trying to get it, all to no avail!
None of this was really bad, or anything other than stories to remember in a few days and years time! Travel fosters resilience and being adaptable and remembering to leave with lots of time!!

SHANGHAI 🇨🇳 Busy, bustly Shanghai. We have arrived in the centre of the city, staying at the Grand Hyatt Shanghai Grand ...
06/08/2026

SHANGHAI 🇨🇳

Busy, bustly Shanghai. We have arrived in the centre of the city, staying at the Grand Hyatt Shanghai Grand Hyatt Shanghai which is a great, comfortable base.

We’ve been out exploring some of the old town and tonight seeing all the bright lights of The Bund.

The afternoon was packed with sight seeing and shopping on the city’s old streets which are fast disappearing and being replaced with sky high apartment blocks

The streets are crowded in Shanghai, it was so busy this evening as we made our way back to our hotel.

It’s been great to see the city, especially all lit up and sparkly!

SHANGHAI 🇨🇳 We’ve made it to Shanghai. Travelling here by overnight train arriving at the Intercontinental Shanghai Wond...
04/08/2026

SHANGHAI 🇨🇳

We’ve made it to Shanghai. Travelling here by overnight train arriving at the Intercontinental Shanghai Wonderland Hotel - one of the world’s deepest hotels, set in a quarry. You arrive and then descend into the bedrooms which all look out into the quarry which each evening has an amazing light show.

The rooms are so luxurious and I had a lovely bubbly bath as soon as we arrived.

We decided to spend the afternoon just enjoying the hotel and this evening had a meal at the hotel’s Chinese Cai Feng Lou restaurant. So many interesting tastes including baked lanzhou lilly bulbs in clay pot and braised bean curd with matsutake soup.

We got back just in time for the light show all across the walls, watching from the bedroom!

THE NIGHT TRAIN TO SHANGHAI 🇨🇳 We are trundling along from Guilin to Shanghai. It’s a 15 hour journey leaving at 7.15pm....
04/08/2026

THE NIGHT TRAIN TO SHANGHAI 🇨🇳

We are trundling along from Guilin to Shanghai. It’s a 15 hour journey leaving at 7.15pm. We booked first class sleeper cabins which were four in a cabin with a lockable door. Second class have harder beds, six to a cabin and no door so the rooms are all open to the corridor. Then there are also seats to book.

We love our night trains (well, we sort of do! I always say we do but they can feel a bit of an endurance mixed with an adventure!). I thought experiencing a night train in China would be interesting at the very least!

So we ate food before we boarded at the train station and then found our cabin. We were split between three cabins but luckily the father and daughter in one of ours agreed to move so I went into one with the children all together.

The beds are comfortable and I woke multiple times in the night (which is standard for me and night trains!) but it wasn’t a terrible nights sleep (I’ve definitely had worst night trains).

They give you little slippers to wear and bottles of water. The sheets, pillow and duvet were all spotlessly clean.

The bathrooms had western style loos (👍👍) which weren’t the most amazing but definitely not the worst - for China or night trains.

Three carriages down is a dining carriage which has coffee, cold drinks, dried noodles and snacks.

The landscape this morning has been fairly typical - rice fields, apartment blocks and the occasional pagoda on a hill top!

It cost around the same of the budget airline, at about ÂŁ80 per person.

Always great to try another night train

YANGSHUO 🇨🇳 We’ve had such a lovely, characterful day in China. Starting at our hotel, the Yangshuo Ancient Garden Hotel...
03/08/2026

YANGSHUO 🇨🇳

We’ve had such a lovely, characterful day in China. Starting at our hotel, the Yangshuo Ancient Garden Hotel with a lovely breakfast and the best showers.

Then our amazing guide from Catherine Lu arrived and whisked us off down to the Li River. Here we took boat rides along the water, looking out on the other worldly looking landscape of mountains around us. It was a great way to see if all.

We then wandered the ancient city of Xingping which was perfect for shopping (I got a lovely jade bangle) and we stopped for fried rice and some veggie noodles.

We drove on to the Yulong River where we hired bikes and even though it was so hot we had such a great cycle along the waterfront and through some of the little villages here. It was a lovely insight into everyday life in the countryside. We loved the whole day!

YANGSHUO 🇨🇳 We’ve travelled 6 hours by high speed train fromChengdu to Yangshuo, a mountainous town known for its dramat...
02/08/2026

YANGSHUO 🇨🇳

We’ve travelled 6 hours by high speed train from
Chengdu to Yangshuo, a mountainous town known for its dramatic landscape in the Guangxi region of China.

We’re staying at the beautiful Yangshuo Ancient Garden Hotel which is slightly out of the city and the most serene retreat. It’s so picturesque.

Tonight we’ve been into the town’s vibrant (and ancient - it’s 1400 years old) West Street for a meal and a look around - it’s absolutely buzzing with activity, hundreds of street food sellers and stalls and shops. And so many people. It’s where the Chinese come on holiday. So we’re so happy to have such a peaceful retreat. And keep scrolling through the photos for the bath tub which I’m in love with!

Tomorrow is a day of activities so I’m enjoying the calm before then!

CHENGDU 🇨🇳 We’ve had more of a relaxed day in Chengdu today. I think k everyone needed to rest a little and as the rain ...
01/08/2026

CHENGDU 🇨🇳

We’ve had more of a relaxed day in Chengdu today. I think k everyone needed to rest a little and as the rain was falling we decided on a chilled day. So we had a lie in and then spent ages over breakfast at our lovely hotel, the Shangri-la Chengdu. Breakfast is absolutely huge so it was great to have toast and jams, fruits, amazing pastries (the cherry ones are my favourite) and sit with coffee….amd then another!
This is such a wonderful hotel and we have so much space in our two room suite and so we were happy to have bubbly baths and then to later sit in the Horizon Club Lounge on the top floor and look out across the city.
At lunch time we went to a Michelin starred vegetarian restaurant- Mi Xun Teahouse at the Upper House Chengdu which was delicious - sweet and sour mushrooms, spinach dandan noodles, ma po tofu, truffle rice…. We loved it!
We had a nice wander through central Chengdu before more time at the hotel through the afternoon.
The oldest was craving some western style food so we headed out to Peter’s Tex Mex this evening for a surprisingly good meal of burritos and tacos.
We’ve really enjoyed our time in Chengdu and it was lovely to come back to explore this rapidly changing city.

CHENGDU 🇨🇳 It’s been a lovely, busy day in China. Starting at the amazing Shangri-la Chengdu hotel Shangri-La Chengdu (d...
31/07/2026

CHENGDU 🇨🇳

It’s been a lovely, busy day in China.

Starting at the amazing Shangri-la Chengdu hotel Shangri-La Chengdu (do we have to leave?!) with a fantastic breakfast which we can’t wait to linger longer over tomorrow!

Today we visited the pandas with Catherine Lu who as ever were absolutely brilliant. We were in so early and it was wonderful to see the pandas, red pandas and my favourite, the Golden Snub Nosed Monkeys who are also native to Sichuan Province here in China.

Our wonderful guide Shiny then took us into Chengdu to explore some of the sights. We loved the People’s Park with its matchmaking corner where (mainly) parents come to post flyers about their children, trying to find them a love match. And we had tea at the oldest cafe in the park with some sweet panda shaped buns too.

Later we went out for an evening walk and the 17 year old loved all the shopping (WOW Colour - a Chinese equivalent to Sephora has proved a big hit!).

We also had some delicious Dan Dan noodles back at our hotel Shangri-La Chengdu which I have become completely obsessed with. I@absolutely have to try and recreate these once I get home. I can’t live without them in my life!!

CHENGDU 🇨🇳 We’ve travelled another three and a half hours on from Xi’an to Chengdu which was the most interesting train ...
30/07/2026

CHENGDU 🇨🇳

We’ve travelled another three and a half hours on from Xi’an to Chengdu which was the most interesting train ride so far, we especially loved seeing the caves and 1500 year old Buddhas at Guangyuan as we sped past. And then we arrived into Chengdu and straight into the most amazing welcome at the Shangri-la Chengdu Shangri-La Chengdu (a hotel brand Shangri-La we love). We have a beautiful two bedroom suite with so much space. Perfect for us all to relax. We decided to mainly stay in today and had a delicious vegetarian Chinese feast at Chang’s Palace (one of the the hotels restaurants). Absolutely full of so many interesting tastes including - Daylily in Superior Broth, Flowering Choy Sum,
The local Dan Dan Noodles and followed by Sichuan Ice Jelly with Brown Sugar. We are all so full and really happy to explore this city for a few days

XI’AN 🇨🇳 We have really enjoyed our day exploring Xi’an today. We started out with a tour with Catherine Lu to Han Yang ...
29/07/2026

XI’AN 🇨🇳

We have really enjoyed our day exploring Xi’an today.
We started out with a tour with Catherine Lu to Han Yang Ling mausoleum- full of offerings to Emperor Jimg. This 2000 year old site contained 50,000 miniature terracotta figures which was fascinating to see. As ever Catherine Lu Tours brought it alive for us.
We then headed to Xi’an’s old city and sat side by side with locals at Sumanxiang, a fantastic vegetarian restaurant which costs around £2 a head for as much as you want to eat and is filled with noodles, dumplings, savoury pancakes, different teas and puddings. It was amazing!
We explored the Muslim quarter next, bartering for handicrafts and fun souvenirs before climbing high up on top of the city walls.its wonderful here, there’s a calm to the city from up high and there are still street food sellers and souvenirs but it’s very quiet. We hired bicycles - something we did when we visited 20 years ago and which I remember so distinctly. This is one of my favourite travel memories now - all cycling along together, chatting, watching the sky tuen into so many colours as dusk fell, the red lanterns being lit, birds dashing along with us. It was so atmospheric and one of those amazing experiences that make you love travel so much! ❤️

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