Yueliangwan Hotel Taiyuan

... insisted that everyone take off their shoes on entry! So we lay on our sides enveloped in smelly feet odour! Pleasant! In fairness, it was cosy and warm though! The journey passed uneventfully. A toilet stop, a cheesy kung fu movie and some snoring..... Until....

The Bus pulled up to the side of the road, a few got out. Then the bus driver decided he'd have a nap. He had a ciggarette, climbed into one of the bunks and fell asleep. For about five hours ...

Z Wutaishanu jsme vyjeli autobusem v 8:10. Cesta do Taiyuanu trvala asi 4 hodiny, vetsina osazenstva ji prospalo - i kdyz personal autobusu se to snazil narusit poustenim nejake cinske superstar neuveritelne nahlas.

Jedna zastavka na benzinove pumpe. Zacina se zdat, ze toalety na benzinkach budou hlavnimi adepty na cenu "Zachod Julie Hubenakove". Hlavne devcata si porad nemuzou zvyknout na vykonavani potreby pred zraky ostatnich Cinanek ve fronte. O zapachu ani nemluve ...

... all these problems. Through internet, Native Chinese teachers can offer professional Chinese for Children and propose useful advice on how to learn Chinese. What's more, online learning also offers convenience and flexibility.

... around it. The hotel was also built into city just like the rest of the buildings. Again, our room was beautiful and it actually contained an entire suite. We hustled off to dinner. Dinner was trip. Mr. Cao was funny and very witty, but a bit twisted and he certainly enjoyed making other people uncomfortable. He also like to drink, a lot. A self-proclaimed alcoholic, he enjoyed watching us squirm as he kept pouring the shots ...

We get dropped off at the Qingxu service station at 2:30am. There's a 24hr convenient store, we find a row of plastic seats and tries to make it until the sun comes up. We have been on the road nonstop for 18 hours, have to wait 7 more hours before we can find a bed.

Before arriving in Yichang my son said to keep things simple in this city. As soon as we arrived yesterday we went to the concierge and asked about a tour to the 3 gorges dam. The concierge told us that we could sign for the tour right then. We did paying our 200 yuan on the spot. The only way to see the dam is via an official tour. A little later the confcierge told us that the tour would be a chinese led ...

... jsme v Cine navstivili. Cestu sem jsme naplanovali tak nejak vseobecne v ramci cestovani po Shanxi v domeni, ze tu preci neco zajimaveho byt musi, kdyz je to hlavnismesto provincie. Neni. Mesto ma pouze dve turisticke zajimavosti, Dve pagody a chram Jinci. Chram jsme vubec nenasli (az o par dni pozdeji, kdyz jsme sem nechtene museli zavitat zase), dve pagody jsou normalni pagody. Udelali jsme si k nim vylet, nicmene cesta vede pres regulerni slum na vychodnim okraji ...

... Pizza Hut here! The pizzas and smoothes are divine, and we've already eaten there three times in less than five days!! (Sorry Sean! haha - we know how much you like Pizza Hut!) In Xian we saw four extraordinary tourist attractions: the tall walls circumventing part of Xian, the Terracotta Warriors, the Panda Rescue Center and Mount Hua Shan. On our first day after arriving on the train into Xian, we headed up onto the ...

... food essentials for the train, where the staff found our presence very amusing. Central China is interesting to say the least if a little intimidating as people stare in disbelief that they are looking at a westerner. When we were waiting on the train, I think this is hilarious, we see a young child running around with assless trousers (and it is the same for all kids), and there is no pampers. Seriously don't know how there are no accidents....

... in the home of Chinese strangers in a city I'd never heard of, with a population of three million people, it all seemed pretty normal. Allen's father (who owns a car tools shop) was friends with the bus station manager. Since we were leaving town on a bus, he drove us to the station and "arranged" our tickets. We said goodbye and Allen told us that we can stay with them anytime if we are ever in Taiyuan again.