Beijing

October 1^st - 6^th 2007

First stop was Beijing. We had to fly Melbourne to Sydney to Beijing, and with the inevitable delays, we got into Beijing at about midnight in the 1^st / 2^nd of October

Xi'an

October 6^th - 9^th 2007

We flew from Beijing to Xi'an, the alternative being a 12 hour train ride. Xi'an is most famous for the Terracotta Army

Chengdu

October 9^th - 13^th 2007

We flew from Xi'an to Chengdu. Chengdu is a pretty nice city, the highlight being a trip to the Panda Research Base

Lhasa

October 13^th - 17^th 2007

We flew from Chengdu to Lhasa. This was one of the highlights of the whole trip, I've always wanted to visit Tibet and it didn't dissapoint

Shanghai

October 17^th - 23^rd 2007

It took us all day to get from Lhasa to Shanghai. It takes nearly 2 hours to drive to the airport, then a flight to Chengdu, then another flight to Shanghai. We stopped here for 6 days

Hangzhou

October 23^rd - 26^th 2007

Getting to Hangzhou from Shanghai was easy, it's just 1.5 hours on a very comfortable, very fast train. Hangzhou was another highlight of the trip, and a big surprise, it's a very beautiful place

Dalian

October 26^th - 29^th 2007

We came to Dalian to rest for 3 days before heading home. The Lonely Planet describes it as one of the most livable cities in China, but it's very hard to see how it gets that title, there wasn't very much to see. It actually snowed there on our last day