With our whirlwind tour of China coming to a close, the last city we flew into was one of the biggest and most modern – Shanghai. From the very modern airport to the massive skyscrapers, the city reminded me a lot of what I remember Hong Kong was like, except that we happened to have a lot more space.

It felt like we were only here for about a day and a half, and part of which we had almost a six hour dining experience at the very exclusive Ultraviolet by Paul Pairet that included not only a fantastic food but a completely immersive sensory experience. I don’t have the time to write about it now but I will be sure to blog about it on the other blog.

Instead, we had a few trips around the different parts of Shanghai including the tallest building that also happens to double for a bottle-opener look-a-like. The Shanghai World Financial Centre sits amid a number of other sky-reaching buildings although is definitely the most striking (and probably most well designed for merchandising).

We got an absolutely gorgeous view of the rest of the city and its landscape including the Shanghai TV tower and the surrounding area. Apparently we really struck it lucky with the weather because we have very clear skies and reasonably temperate conditions.

Our touring included a local family visit, a trip to the City Museum and the very well kept, albeit touristy Yuen’s Gardens and surrounding markets conveniently very close to our hotel.

Our final evening finished off with an impressive show of Chinese acrobatics that ended with a finale involving eight or nine motorbikes loaded up inside a steel cage on stage. You can tell from the world brands that the city is a lot more developed and has a lot more of the appetite for Western style but who knows how long that will last for.

Our next destination, Guilin, is what you think of when you think of the natural landscapes of China. Everything from the fisherman pushing their small rafts along a picturesque river surrounded by glorious mountains such as below.

Or to the green rice-paddies up in the mountain that change shades with the seasons.

We also visited our first set of “Chinese minority” groups.

Apparently only 10% of the Chinese population are considered minority groups, who the government give special rights to (such as having more than one child) but must have certain restrictions at the same time such as wearing their traditional clothing, and trying to keep to their way of life as much as possible. The group we visited, on the way up to the rice-paddies, were the Yao people, most well known for their women folk who only ever have a hair cut once in their life (when they are 16), but otherwise grown it out.

They wrap their hair around their head in different ways depending on whether or not they are married, or have kids and our tour guide explained how they take care of their – washing it with the fermented wash-off from the rice before cooking. Apparently it cleanses the hair and keeps it pretty much jet black and doesn’t smell so much. We entered the village and despite being drawn into a show where we were pretty much forced to buy some souvenirs as a “wedding gift” in a fake ceremony, seemed like a very peaceful life.

We walked up a very gently sloped mountain to get the top of some glorious country-side dotted with rice paddies on every corner. It also seemed to be a popular place for people to stay with many little small inns and hotels on the way up and popular with people who want to hike around the country-side.

On the way up, you can buy lots of products such as home-made chilli sauce, or some of the “Buddha Tea” that I think is apparently mangosteen tea, a fruity, sweet tea that definitely needs no sugar.

The next day after the rice-paddies, we took a river cruise. This river is very well known for its amazing scenery and the four hour tour takes you down amazingly sculpted mountains and beautiful landscaped dotted with cattle, fisherman and wildlife. We even stopped at a point that is so famous is sits on the 20 yuan note, although the photo doesn’t really do it justice.

On our final day in Guilin, we visited Elephant Island which is known for the mountains that look like elephant structures (or more like a wolly mammoth in this case to me).

And we popped into the local caves dotted with stalactites and stalagmites that a local farmer apparently stumbled upon when digging a hole. Although lighting has been fitted, apparently all of the structures are fitted except for the comfortable walking path tat our tour guide lead us through.

I’ve only been on caves like this once in my life, but the structures in this one were truly amazing.

Even more magnificent when reflected against an internally formed pool such as in the picture below:

Guilin was definitely a bit on the smaller-side to the cities in China. Still massive, though not as modern but very nice.

After leaving the historical, ancient and traditional cities of Beijing and Xian, we flew onto Chengdu, the most modern capital of the west. The city left a very good impression with me. The roads looked very well organised, the metro system very modern and seemed a little less chaotic than the other two cities we’d just been in. Chengdu also happens to be the capital of the Sichuan province – an area well known for spicy food like Ma Po Tofu and the like. My parents didn’t like the food as much as I did, but still enjoyed.

We had a day tour of Emeishan or Mount Emei, where we took a cable car up to the top before descending the many steps on the way down. Little other alternatives create business opportunities for locals who offer to carry you down in bamboo chairs although you need to definitely bargain your way. Instead, we just took our time with my mum being the most delicate and needing the most support.

We saw plenty of wildlife including many types of caterpillars, butterflies and warning signs of monkeys (though none sighted). This mountain had some really beautiful scenery.

Such as this lake with accompanying place for a flame.

We took a break in the mountain for lunch, but we saw how people brought construction materials down and up with the help of horses carrying bricks on either side of their back. What was really impressive was the way that the animals were able to navigate the small narrow staircases by themselves, weaving in a zig zag pattern from from the bottom back to the top without any assistance.

The next day in Chengdu, we took a trip out to see the Leshan Giant Buddha. It’s an impressive buddha carved into the side of the cliffs with two vantage points – by boat where you get shipped in front of the strong tides of the city river, or by walking down the cliff where you get to enjoy the sights yourself. We lined up amongst all the Chinese people (who we found extremely pushy and wouldn’t hesitate to fill any open gap) and it took probably a good hour to get to the bottom of the buddha after waiting for all the people to go through.

We returned to Chengdu to spend some free time walking around. Our final day in Chengdu before flying out involved heading out to the Panda Base, home to the breeding and safe grounds for the Giant and Red Pandas.

I’m glad we started early, with the idea of seeing lots of the pandas on opening without the crowds. We walked around the various pens where the pandas were either eating or sleeping as well as looking very human like in the process.

Although all the pandas were amazing to see in real life, the red pandas looked really interesting for me because they are appear closer to racoons than they do a real panda. They never really seemed to stop moving unless they were chomping on bamboo, and seemed a lot more active than the giant pandas who would pretty much stay in one spot for a good amount of time.

My sister and I opted to pay an extra fee to get closer to panda, much in the same way that one would pay to hold a koala in Australia. It buys you a a very unattractive outfit to protect the panda (and you!) from transmitting any diseases where you need to don plastic gloves, plastic boots over your shoes and then a blue hospital gown before lining up behind a small curtain.

They have about eight to ten people lining up at any time, and you end up spending about two to three minutes seated next to panda where you get to hug it. The one we had was about a year old, and seemed pretty docile and happy chomping away on fresh bamboo. They don’t smell like apparently koalas do, and their fur, though very thick was surprisingly coarse compared to what you might expect.

I think I could spend just a day hanging around the panda enclosure and just watch them do whatever they do. I do wonder if they would be so popular if they weren’t as cute as they were. But they are. And I guess that’s enough.

Our next stop after the traditional Beijing is to head towards a place that had even discovered relics, but more specifically the Terracotta warriors, Xian.

One of the big central sights to see in Xian is the Big Goose Pagoda (above), where you get a magnificent view of the city and all surroundings including the parklands and view like below.

Xian also has a significantly large Muslin population and apparently the Muslin quarter has some of the best street food to snack on. Unfortunately we were warned by our tour guide to stay away because there has been a lot of rebelling recently against anyone that might be mistaken for American or Japanese and that it was best to stay to other quarters.

For example the city wall and gates (above) were closed down even though we were supposed to visit just because even Japanese branded cars were known to targets for some of the people rebelling. Apparently the uproar is centred around the controversial ownership of the Senkaku Islands and the support the Americans are apparently having for the Japanese against the Chinese in this situation. Anyway a situation best avoided.

The terracotta warriors were definitely a sight to behold. The grounds are fairly new because the the first of the Terracotta Army was only discovered in the mid 1970s and the area around them had been mainly farming land. Around it has now sprouted a very vast tourist-friendly grounds that gives you a good guide to the discovery and the constant unearthing of new statues but little appreciation for the area other than that. It’s still impressive to visit and was worth the journey out there.

I spent the last half of September travelling around China with the rest of my family from Australia. My sister and I flew in directly from London to arrive, rather weary-eyed to a waking Beijing city. We had a good day walking around before the rest of the family flew in, so we travelled by foot. Beijing is one of the bigger, modern cities but filled with lots of tradition. The streets were wide, clean and not at all like the streets of India that I had imagined.

Of course one of the things one must eat when in China is the Beijing (Peking) duck. I ended up eating this twice on the trip, one at Da Dong Roast Duck, a rather upscale, and busy restaurant even when we arrived for a late lunch at 2pm. Dishes are beautifully presented and the duck prepared table-side. The other restaurant, apparently more famous but definitely on the group-tour trail was Quanjude. Both ducks were fresh, nice skin but I’ve still decided it’s not my most favourite Chinese dish.

We visited a lot of different things in Beijing including a number of tourist temples (such as this Confucius shrine below), a number parts, and of course some of the bigger sights.

Such as the bustling Forbidden City where we walked through courtyard and courtyard amazed at the sheer number of spaces and the wonderful stories behind each of the different parts. The Forbidden City sits on the opposite side of the street from the Tiananmen Square (where the events of the past were carefully stepped around). Both were amazing places to see. I’m also really pleased that my sister organised it for the two weeks before the Chinese national holiday where, pretty much the entire country, moves around on their feet. Just compare the space above to the pictures in this article.

We also visited the Temple of Heaven which was just as majestic as all the other parts.

And we finished one of the evenings we had there with a visit to see some Shaolin Monks and the kung fu show. It was very similar to one of the acts that I’d seen here in London but it’s still very impressive to see the skills and training they have.

We took a day trip out to the Great Wall of China as well. The day turned out perfect – a little cool, very sunny with very clear skies and great visibility. There are apparently many different parts of the wall one can visit and we went to one that was challenging with the parents, but still very well kept with lots of places to stop and rest as well as places that weren’t too steep or old.

Beijing is also home to the Summer Palace (pictured below) that is a majestic ground including a lake with many boats and the world’s longest terrace for the Empress Dowanger to walk down and enjoy the view.

Our visit to Beijing finished up with a visit to a Hutong, a family visit which was nice to see how local’s lived traditionally and a quick trip to the Olympic Park where I was surprised still had lots of activity going.

Beijing gave us the flavour of the traditional side of China steeped in history and lots of impressive structures made a long time ago. It also gave us a taste of how modern China is developing with lots of new buildings, huge constructs and impressive buildings.

For the Jubilee long weekend, I ended up in Prague for a last minute weekend break. I thought it was going to be terrible with my view of stag parties heading everywhere and anticipating what Amsterdam’s red light district would be like, but with more beer and groups. Fortunately it was a surprise that even though plenty of English stag crowds were around, the rest of the city was just beautiful and a sight to behold.

Prague reminded me a lot about my time in Budapest since it’s along a river, and seems to have just as many bridges crossing it as well. The most famous, the Charles Bridge is full of tourists, street artists and musicians out to entertain and raise some money. That bridge also leads all the way to the castle, apparently one of the biggest in Europe and with amazing views of the city. This is one of the streets on the hilly ascent up.

There’s plenty of interesting things around town including art like this.

The city also has an amazing set of buildings all done in different styles and shapes. One of the very well known ones is the Dancing House, a Frank Gehry that looks just as intriguing during the day as it does during the evening when it is lit up.

I managed to stumble across the rather “huge” Occupy movement in Prague.

The old historic square attracts a lot of tourists and that’s for a very good reason. The Astronomical Clock doesn’t sit too far and there are plenty of interesting cafes and restaurants to sit back and relax in.

There’s also this imposing tower you can climb. It’s not quite as tall as the Cathedral Dome in Cologne, but it’s still fun climbing small spiral staircases. Go early to avoid the traffic in the stairwell.

You’ll then be rewarded with a stunning rooftop view. Or at least a view of all the tour groups standing around with their English guide.

I also visited the amazing Senate Gardens. The garden is set up in such a way that even with the number of visitors, it never feels like there are a lot of people there. Amazingly well kept.

I saw a number of Gloria Jeans coffee houses around town. I guess it’s catering to the crowds of Australians coming over and the fact that Prague generally serves pretty poor coffee. Beer is the thing here. And it’s often cheaper than water when you dine out.

Prague is a bit infamous for its food. Stodge, more stodge and generally a lot of meat. I’m always worried by signs like this:

The old square has a number of stalls serving fire roasted ham and these chimney cakes that I remember from Hungary (called Kürtőskalács there)

In the Czech Republic, they are referred to as Trdelník. When in Prague…

The weather wasn’t the warmest it could have been and I was glad to bring a sweater. Fortunately the heavy rain waited until at least the day that I left before falling. A nice experience and definitely a city worth visiting again.

Time is certainly flying past this year. I can’t believe it’s already June and pretty sure this month will fly by as well. At the end of last month, I headed away for a week at a conference, once again in Malmo, a city on the south side of Sweden and easily reached by a short train ride from Copenhagen airport.

I stayed at a very nice hotel that had an amazing gym space, and a very comfortable bed as you can see. Fortunately they also had pretty dark curtains since summertime in Sweden means sunrise very early and very late. Since I don’t seem to sleep well if there is even a slight hint of light, dark curtains work really well for me. The conference wasn’t walking distance to the city and we all had to catch a train two stops out of the city centre to a rather desolate conference centre location. The conference went really well though and I think has some of the best conversations out of many I present at.

Since I had to arrive before Monday to give a tutorial first thing Monday morning, I was fortunate to take some time sightseeing. Although I was in Malmo for Øredev the last two years, things always look better in the sunshine. Above is the the view you get when you step outside from the main train station.

And there are small canalways where tourist boats tour around for an hour around. You get a pretty good sense of how small the city is, but how very nice it is as well.

The boat goes under bridges that are fearfully close to your head but still fun to ride underneath.

Here’s a picture of the famous Turning Torso that dominates the skyline. Malmo really comes alive during the summer with many people lying out in any green space, and the cafes and restaurants throwing as many tables and chairs as they can onto the pavement to be sat on until late in the evening and sometimes early in the morning.