a nomad’s travel clutter.

Early in the morning, alarm rings and everyone falls to sleep. Except Janie. So I’m down here uploading photos, anyway… Jen and Em have joined me now. The only bad thing about sharing a room for four is there is only ONE bathroom, which means everyone wants to go last in the morning and first in the night.

Yesterday we went climbing THE GREAT WALL. The bus left our hostel at 6.40 and it was 3 hours drive to that part of the wall called Jinshanling. From Jinshanling we were suppose to climb 30 towers to Simatai, around 9 km and 4 hours of hike. We thought Huangshan had strengthened us, and Great Wall should just be an easy piece of cake. But like always, haha, no… Great Wall was hard. We went to the parts that were no reconstructed so the millions of stairs were all ragged and broken. It took real concentration sometimes to look where you are stepping. We also forgot a little about the sun, since it had been rainy and cloudy the couple past days. No one remembered to bring sun block, ay ay ay. Everybody are burning torches today, worst is Julian. We will be getting after sun and kylbalsam as soon as we see it.

Here are some of the pictures on the Great Wall.

Our minibus at toilet stop.

We had to walk past a little village and their crops to get up to the wall. That alone took 30 min.

Great Wall in the beginning of our hike.

Great Wall in the end of our hike.

Jen and Em in a tower.

The old parts…

Julian on top of Great Wall.

All of us!

We got back at the hostel around 7PM and then headed straight to the night market for food!!

After that we even got some lovely foot massage that we all fell asleep at during the end. That’s all for now, and people don’t forget to comment!!

After a night’s sleep on the fast train from Shangha to Beijing including card games and lots of snacks, we arrived 7:00 in the morning to the capital of China. Our Downtown Backpacker’s Hostel even included pick-up in their room price (60RMB) so everything was so simple. A guy met us at the station and drove us to the hostel, where we are now. The people in our room haven’t left yet, they are very slow… so we decided to make use of our time. We took a walk in the neighbourhood, pretty small hutongs. Beijing has a whole different atmosphere, compared to Shanghai, there are like no skyscrapers. We’ve left the futuristic “Gotham City” (we saw Batman Begins yesterday in an Imax theatre) and come to the capital that tries to preserve the old. Anyway, now for the pictures that haven’t been up since a long time.

Back in Hangzhou, singing kareoke. Very concentrated.

The first day in Huangshan, before we climbed the mountain. We went rafting!

This is a-top of the mountain by some peak (it has a famous name that we’ve forgotten now because there was so many of them).

From the top we took cable car down a spring where we took a dive. No, just joking. We just posed for the tourists.

The next morning in Huangshan we woke up 3 to see sunrise. This is when it was dark and FOGGY!

Then it got brighter, but the winds were still howling. Here almost blowing Janie away…

We held on though and climbed and climbed. Here we climbed the “199 steps to find your love”.

From 1864m we went down all the way to the ground, passing these steep parts.

And before we know it we’re by the bund (or waitan in chinese) in Shanghai. Here you can see the Pearl Tower and also Jinmao Tower tallest on the right where we went to for the highest bar in Asia (87th floor).

We did some shopping in Yuyuan Bazaar.

And the big moment of meeting EDISON!! (He’s the guy on the left)

Finally we are now sitting in this building. The cozy little hutong hostel that is every backpackers dream. Well, at least all the thanks and praising scribbles covering the walls says so. We’ll see…

Tata for now, we’ll try to update more now that we have such good access.

P.S. Clara, we see that you might have felt a bit lost in the world there for a while writing that e-mail. But good news is it’s not what you think. The mail must have disappeared somehow. A simple explanation to a cryptic riddle. We actually like you very much (and same that to all that follows our trip and supports us) and miss you loads. Not long now till we’re back with you in Sweden.

Finally! We have computer and internet again. Emelie is sitting beside me (Janie) now in Captain Hostel in shanghai. Since last we've been in Hangzhou, with Jen's family, visted West Lake, biked on the Bai Du, seen acrobatic show in ... [Continue reading this entry]

Again we're in a hurry to make this update snice we're on our way to the unknown in Huangzhou to join up with Jen & Em. The train leaves in a little more than an hour and we'll get there ... [Continue reading this entry]

I wrote a whole long entry, and then my uncle accidentally closed the window. I had not saved. ...>_< ... I will make it short now, because me and Julian are going out soon, to check out Wuxi's nightlife. So my ... [Continue reading this entry]

We haven't posted in a while, have been busy (or rather lazy sometimes) and it doesn't help with the addition of Mimmi. She will be hanging around with us until... tomorrow, when all Janie's cousin's tests are over ... [Continue reading this entry]

I've been here in China almost a week soon and there's been a lot of "I don't understand", "Everything is different" and "Janie has to translate everything". Don't get me wrong though, cause it's been a wonderful week. Don't feel ... [Continue reading this entry]

Another day, another mystery to solve. This time we were off to the Xi Hui Mountains to solve the mystery of the fit older people who hit trees, eat sandwiches at the top of the trees and the 60-year-old ... [Continue reading this entry]

We've now spent two nights over here and it's getting easier to deal with all the differences. We couldn't post any pictures yesterday but here's a few for catching-up-purposes: Julian is a fish-out-of-water whether he wants to or ... [Continue reading this entry]

We got our first email (from somebody we know, not including junk) since we have arrived to China. It's wonderful to hear from somebody from home. Jen's Email:

hey! bet you guys are having a lot of fun!! nothing happening much here, we ... [Continue reading this entry]