Back from Japan and China

those are great adamcube! Makes me want to go even more now =/.
You said you went to China too(assuming thats what you meant by the topic name), what was that like, or was it just flying through?
 
Thanks everyone - somehow I managed to blur all of my pictures, but luckily it doesn't show up quite as much when they are resized.

I did indeed go to China, Arbalest. Going with a Chinese family, we basically took a Hong Kong tour to Japan for five days, and then spent another three weeks in China. I covered Hong Kong, Shekou (inside Shenzhen), Shanghai and Beijing, with Shanghai and Hong Kong being my favourites by far. I saw some amazing things whilst I was there, including the Great Wall and Tomb of the Thirteenth Emperor. I also walked around Tiennamen Square, the Forbidden City (the Emperor's Palace in Beijing), the Emperor's Summer Palace and another massive Palace-type construction in a small outskirts town called Souzou.

http://files.adamcube.co.uk/Images/Chin ... Street.JPG - A high steet off the main shopping arcade in Beijing.

http://files.adamcube.co.uk/Images/Chin ... atWall.JPG - The weather bad - it was still beautiful.

I'll try to post more pictures later, when I get the chance!

Whilst I was there I saw alot of things that really changed my perspective on the world. For starters, China is huge. Japan is very much like England in the sense that we're both insular islands and drive on the left. China, however, just goes on and on. The main town we stayed in, where my friend's family live, was Shekou. I was told it was like the "hamlet" on China, before I left. In truth, Shekou and the surrounding city Shenzhen are probably on a par with London. I also saw lots of poverty in China. In total, in Japan I only saw one person living on the streets in Tokyo. In China, this was more than a common occurance. Seeing so many people struggling to get by, and living in such horrible conditions was a real eye-openner, and an experience I'm very glad for being able to have had.

I found China absolutely amazing, but I sort of wish I could have had a little bit longer in Tokyo, to explore and see it properly. But - that's now my incentive to save up the £2600-odd you'd need for twenty days and go!

One thing, though, anyone wanting to go to China - don't be fooled by what you think Chinese food is in the UK!! Whereas most Japanese food chains make a fair representation of what Japanese is really like, Chinese takeaways really, really don't. Whilst in China, I tried chicken feet, eel, stomach, intestine, all manor of shell fish and tripe, which pretty much covers all of the above. My favourite "real" Chinese food was probably Shanghai-style Pork and Leek dumplings. :D
 
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