Huangshan and Shanghai

It's strange being back in the UK. The feeling that so much has happened in your own life in the last 3 months and yet not much seems to have changed back here. The last few days of our trip were an almost perfect ending to what has been the adventure of a lifetime. The reason why it was 'almost' perfect was the weather in Huangshan, home of the 'Yellow Mountains'. We had flown from Xi'an to Huangshan in order to see the fabled mountain range; a range known for its 'sea of cloud' with the mountain tops poking through. Unfortunately for us, there was rather too much cloud. Setting off for the mountains, the weather forecast wasn't particularly optimistic but we weren't quite expecting visibility of only about 5 meters. Anyway, we put it behind us and jumped onto the bullet train to Shanghai. Going on the bullet train made me realise two things about the rain system in the UK. Firstly, British trains are not the quickest. Secondly, I don't feel great paying £30 to take a London Midland train to Euston when I can travel double the distance in half the time for the same price in China. On arriving, it soon became apparent that Shanghai is a very cool place. I know that China is technically a communist country but one questions their ideological steadfastness when you see the incredible number of skyscrapers and buildings with 'HSBC' down the side. A trip to the highest observation tower in the world gave us an amazing view of the sky line and reflecting on that has made me appreciate the diversity of this trip. Places like the Pamir Highway are the complete antithesis of Shanghai and so to see it all on one trip has been truly incredible. Now on about the 2nd day in Shanghai, I didn't feel so great. Myself, like my two travelling companions, thought this was just a chronic hangover. This slightly marred the experience of taking the Maglev train (fastest train in the world) but did provide some amusement for the others who quite rightly didn't take that much pity on me. Testing back in the UK showed that this wasn't just the worlds worst hangover but that ecoli producing bacteria had squeezed their way into my stomach - even now I am quite literally still carrying the trip around with me! Finally, I would like to say a huge thank you to all of you who have been reading this blog; I hope that I didn't bore on too long and that you enjoyed coming from London to Beijing (Shanghai) with us! KBO.