Tianyu Hotel Guangzhou

.. It really hurt and was not relaxing. People do funny things in the park- Bollywood dancing, Thai chi, singing. Mom does yoga. Another thing we did was rent bikes to see the lights of the Canton Tower. We rented two two-person bikes and played Downtown on mom's iPhone. We also took the subway to a place called Shamian Island. Many people get wedding pictures here. I saw white dresses and one blue...

... and the ones cutting grass with a sickle sweat profusely. And as we stand there, some using umbrellas against the hot sun, I stare at that silent grave. The man and woman who are burried there have experienced so much in one lifetime. They grew up when women in China still had bound feet, no bigger than 10 cm. They lived here when the Japanese raped Nankin. To put that rape in perspective: about the same number of people were killed there as in the two ...

Night. A tiny new moon in the sky. Seated in the leather backseat of a luxury sedan, while our chauffeur finds his way from Shenzhen to Canton. For hours the illuminated windows of futuristic highrises have been gliding by. By the way, I noticed that traffic in Lanzhou is definitely more 'assertive' than elsewhere. Here for instance, I have hardly heard any honking, and people give each other a little more space. The day already ...

... it was just like fright night at Thorpe park. Our favourite we went on 6 times in the last half an hour before it closed, we kept having to run all the way round the queue as they wouldn't just let us stay on. Yet again we walked about 10miles :o. Today somehow we slept in until 12! We must have been tired. Having a chilled day, trying to save money today. Doing some laundry and taking advantage of all the activities in the hostel, movies, pool, table football and loadsa wii ...

... stopped off briefly at a memorial to Dr Sun Yat Set, who was the first Chinese Prime Minister and overthrew the last emperor. It was a short pit stop while we did a lap of the park. We were left with 2 hours at the shops, Beijing Road - fairly uneventful. Back to the airport and a 9 hour flight to Sydney. Another 2 hour wait in the airport and a bus home to ...