As part of the tour we visited a train that was recovered from the DMZ after the ceasefire was declared between the countries - I can't remember exactly how many bullet holes it had in it but it was a complete state.

When you look over the DMZ you can see two flags that of the north and that of the south which designate the settlements of the two sides. People live in the DMZ which I think consists of military personel, support staff and some farmers who get paid quite well as they do occassionally get taken hostage.... although apparently not too recently! Its a unique scene seeing the divide between the countries and because of all the mines it hasn't been developed at all and is really green - I think its recently been designated as a national park because of all the wildlife and plants that grow there!

The military guys that stopped people taking photos they took film off you or made you delete your digital photos if they caught you. I thought it was best not to mess with these guys....

The tour took us to a viewing point looking over the DMZ which was cool but you couldn't take photos past a certain line so this is my zoomed in photo of the viewing point - the mountain line in the background in North Korea!

Part of the tour took us down to the tunnels where North Korea have tried to tunnel to Seoul. We got to wear these cool blue helmets which was lucky because the tunnels were pretty low and I managed to hit my head a couple of times! They told an odd story about when the tunnels were first discovered North Korea claimed they were mining for coal and as it was actually granite to support their story they'd painted the tunnels black to look like coal - it sounds so odd I wasn't sure whether it was propaganda or not and I'm still not sure!

Ok so I'm dressed in smart clothes because I thought I was going into the negotiation area where there's a strict dress code but they were closed for the day - The UN and South Korea were having a chat with North Korea about the submarine that got shot down and the nuclear tests - no idea why they thought I couldn't help out with the negotiations! Here's me at the train station between the two capitals - it used to run between the two but international relations have soured recently and no trains run on this line anymore. There was an underlying feeling from this tour that South Korea wanted to have a better relationship with North Korea and open it up again but politically its complicated and there's such a large amount of propaganda that when I spoke to South Koreans about things like the submarine incident they were frank and said that honestly they didn't know what to believe! One day I hope I'll be able to go back to this station and see it in action...

Got up early and headed on the DMZ (de-militarised zone) tour which is a 4km strip across the length of the country between north and south korea. Its surrounded by barbed wire, sentry towers, its mined, there was a heavy military presence and South Korean civilians aren't allowed in the DMZ - needless to say this was a bit different from your average tour!

Headed up the tallest mountain in Seoul the next day - it was an absolute trek a good 5 hours and when I got to the top they'd closed the peak and it was covered in cloud but this is where I was headed! Awesome trek there's very few signposts you just keep heading up!

Given the afternoon to myself I headed up a mountain looking over the city in search of some city walls - not quite the great wall of china but from up here you could get some idea of just how huge Seoul is.

The next day we headed to Seoul station to drop AB off on his trip back to Seoul and meet up with a friend of his - so I confidently strode off and got completely lost only to find AB's friend again who told me where to go otherwise I'd still be standing down in the tube station!

We had some Soju and headed out to a club called Via in Seoul where some DJ friends of AB had sets - crazy dancing ensued! we stopped of for some 'rcie champagne' called makala which tastes fairly horrible but has a real kick to it!

The Korean BBQ! awesome little places across Korea where you can cook your own meat its so tender and tastes amazing I want to bring these places back to the UK - look at the concentration!

Me with the Korean police - there's national conscription in Sotuh Korea which you can either do in the army or you can apply to be a policeman on rollerskates in a jazzy red suit... think I know which I'd go for!

More korean palace scenes!

With AB as photographer and an slight obsession with angled photos we headed round Seoul to see the sights.

Next day we headed into Seoul to explore, go shopping and sample some of the local food then headed to Nanta a comedy show based in a Kitchen. What AB didn't tell me was that they made people go up on stage and he stuck me on the end of a row...... so I got chosed to go up on stage! I got dressed up for my 'wedding', fake clubbed over the head with a rolling pin, had to try some soup then finally got married to a japanese girl that got picked to come up on stage too! great show really fun.

We went for a wonder round Seoul which literally never sleeps - this was one of the huge multi storey stores which were still open at 4am!

My first Koreans! Nice guys sat next to us at the night market so while sampling the local street food and my first taste of Soju, the Korean national drink, which is a hideously strong spirit drunk straight with dinner we chatted to them and they insisted I hadf a picture with the first koreans I'd spoken to.

Seoul the capital of South Korea! AB came and met me at the airport and we headed into town to check in and grab some food at the local night market, the oldest in Korea.

Me with my hire bike cycling down the river from the forbidden city back to my hostel in Beijing to jump on a plane to South Korea!

Me chilling out in front of the forbidden city.

The longest corridor in the world, from memory it was a couple of miles long, which everyone could walk along except for when they were blocked by tourists taking pictures of themselves...

The forbidden city! We cycled about 10k to get there and then went round with an audio guide telling us all about these really impressive buildings and heres me in front of the drum tower.

Back on the blog after 2 months! so back in Beijing the morning after the great wall and me and my american friend hired bikes and braved the roads of Beijing to head to the forbidden city - stopping on route to join in the back of this tai chi class which happens in every single park across china just a shame we didn't have the white suits as well!

So thats my update for now I've made it to Korea and I'll try and get those pictures up soon. China was awesome I think the highlight was definitely the wall - see how happy I am in this picture - but everything about China was awesome and I've been to so many places and see so many different things it was an amazing experience and so different to anywhere I've been before and I'm so glad I decided go.

This is us after having treked the wall we all just sat here and took it in. It was an amazing day and definitely one I'll never forget. After this we headed down into the village and for a quick beer before heading back to Beijing.

The wall is incredible its 6,000km long and goes over mountains and tough terrain its amazing to see and we found a part where there was literally noone apart from us.

A completely deserted part of the great wall of China - this was probably the highlight of my trip to China and was just an amazing day. The four of us left the minibus driver at the bottom and said we'd be back in 4hrs.

After Tianamen I went back to my dorm and made friends with a nice american guy called peter who I managed to convince that he wanted to come to a remote part of the great wall to avoid the crowds. On the way we picked up a polish couple who were a bit lost and the four of us set off up the wall - first stopping at the tourist shop to borrow the chinese hats for this photo!

So then there was an epic 26hr train journey where the only ticket I could get was 'standing room only'! I sat on my bag in an aisle for 26 hours to get from Chengdu to Beijing living like the chiense do on these pretty tasty chinese pot noodle - needless to say I was pretty excited when we finaly got to Beijing!I checked in an headed for Tianamen square which is huge - this is the picutre of chairman mao that looks over the square.

So I've got hundreds of photos of pandas but I've tried to put up a video of them playing just not sure whether it'll work or which one it is. One of them is the panda falling of the wooden ladder which was funny.

From Xi'an I got a sleeper train down to Chengdu which is where China has a huge panda breeding facility reserve for looking after pandas and releasing them into the wild. Around Chengdu is the only place in the world you can find wild pandas. These guys were awesome you have to go early in the morning so they're awake as thats when they get fed and they don't regulate heat very well so they hide in later in the day. These guys were playing a game of pushing each other off the log ladder they were on!

I'd heard about a chess pavillion on the East peak of M Hua Shan so I decided to go in search of it because the pictures look awesome unfortunately you have to risk your life to get there! Its a vertical climb up a 40m boulder with very few foot holds and you have to hold onto the two chains on either aside and work your way up - thats where I decided the chess paviliion wasn't going to happen. The chinese call this an 'adventure spot'!

For good luck people tie padlocks onto the side of this sacred mountain by red ribbons so there are thousands of ribbons and padlocks where people have been up here. At the top there's a cablecar for people that don't fancy the trek up the mountain (which is most people!) so up here there were lots of tourists but I really enjoyed this mountain.

The guidebook said the first 4k were easy and then the last 2kms were pretty tough. What it should have said was the first 4kms are pretty tough steady uphill treking and the last 2 kms are clambering and climbing up huge flights of stairs using the metal chains at the side to get you up! It was ridiculous and I really enjoyed it and getting to the top was an awesome feeling.

So I decided to spend anothe day in Xi'an and go up one of the other sacred mountains, Mt Hua Shan. This mountain is incredible I'd thoroughly recommend going from the bottom to anyone thats pretty fit and not scared of heights its a proper trek!

Me chilling out at the back of the hanger holding the figures from Pit 1. Not sure if you can see quite how big it is from this picture but this hanger was absolutely huge - they all face east which is why they're looking away from me as opposed to getting more involved in the shot.

More rows of foot soldiers. There's actually 3 pits this is Pit 1 which has mainly foot soldiers and some horses, Pit 3 was a control pit for Pit 1 and 2, and Pit 2 had more cavelry and is still being excavated - when its done I think they expect to have over 6,000 figures but its still going on and where they were excavating you couldn't take pictures.

Xi'an is also only a couple of miles from the home of the terracotta army. They're housed in a huge warehouse and are awesome to see I've got lots of pictures but I'll only put a few up for now.

The ancient city of Xi'an which used to be the capital before Beijing. The city walls still remain and are 14km around the city which are very impressive and a decent walk although after half way I went down to get a drink and then couldn't get back up so I've walked half the wall!

I got a bit lost in Xi'an and decided to get a taxi to the place I was staying, except I couldn't find a taxi, so I got a shed on wheels! Terrifying crazy driver but he just about got me there ok even thought at one point we turned into 3 lanes of oncoming traffic! Ah Chinese driving its a bit special to say the least.

Ok so the guidebook I have for China I got cheap in Oz and it happens to be 8 years out of date. So I'd read in the book it took 8 hours to get to Xi'an from the Shoulin temple and I went and asked for a sleeper train ticket... now getting tickets is confusing enough but it turned out there's a new train in town it goes 350km/hr and only takes 2 hours so the lady behind the desk had no idea why I wanted a sleeper train ticket! This is me with the super fast train in Xi'an.

Kung fu show at the shoulin temple! It was a bit like the circus but these guys are all amazing athletes and it was good to be able to see then showing off their skills with different weapons. This was their final bow where they were a bit more chilled out compared to the kung fu moves they'd been doing.

Having seen the temple I decided to head up one of the sacred mountains of China, of which I think there are either 4 or 5, which was just next to the temple. I didn't realise at time but when I got up there a path was cut out of the side of the cliff which was amazing if not slightly dubious - there were quite a few danger sings saying not to stand around for too long as things might fall on you! There were great views and it would have lead to a buddhist temple on the cliff but I didn't have enough time - I wanted to get back to see the kung fu show and I'd also been warned that the lift shut at 6 which begged the question what do you do if you get stuck up there?!

The Shoulin temple which due to some excellent planning and luck I got to very early in the morning before the crowds and at that time it felt like a really spiritual place. The temple's set away from any big cities deep in the mountains far away from everyone and the buddhist monks would practice buddhism and learn kung fu... it sort of appealed!

So the unbreakable underwater super camera... broke! I didn't even drop it

one minute it was working and then its started whiring and wouldn't take pictures. So I headed up to the tourist area and managed to find a camera which takes ok pictures. Hopefully third time lucky and this should see out the rest of China and Korea... this was its first photo at the enterance to the Shoulin area.

So this is a whistlestop tour of my china trip and there's loads of photos which I'll add when I get home but after shanghai I got the train the zhengzou and then a bus to the Shoulin temple - home of kung fu!

The Expo which is a massive area where each country has a stand to tell you about their country and traditions and other information. The huge imposing red one in the middle belongs to China and inside it was actually very interesting although it was my last day in Shanghai and I'd checked out of the hotel which meant I was carrying my monster 20kg travel bag with me so I was beating a rather slow path around these exhibitions.

A metal ball with 3 motorbikes going around the inside of it?! only in China I think...

Shanghai Circus which I was meant to be going to with a chinese couple I met on the bund but mysteriously she felt ill just as we got to the subway so they packed me onto the subway on my own and I didn't see them again... it was a great show though like the circus in the UK but with a total disregard for their safety!

An old area of town near the traditional gardens which was a bit like a chinese version fo the lanes in Brighton.