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.

More exploring of shanghai -more pictures to come later this was in a traditional chinese garden which has been preserved in an old part of town.

A statue from the buddhist temple which holds the Jade buddha in Shanghai - I overheard a guide saying this character stops evil with its umbrella... really? and umbrella to stop evil?!

The mass of bikes and scooters that are on the roads. Its hard to convey just how many there are its definitely much more than cars and they have their own lanes. Oh and they're all crazy drivers!

Trying to book a train ticket at Shanghai train station! It was a sea of people and everything was in Chinese but by some miracle I found an english speaking counter and was all booked to go to Zhengzou in a couple of days.

My first Chinese dumplings. I only remembered to take a picture late on thats why theres only 4 instead of 12! And theres a cup of tea - you get tea with everything in China so I am now a tea drinker although it was more because I had to than actually being a big fan.

The bund at night on my walk back to the hotel after spedning the day exploring shanghai. I'll put all the pictures up when I'm back in the UK.

The Chinese girls I went to a chinese tea ceremony with and then grabbed some lunch with afterwards. They started talking to me and then invited me to a tea ceremony they were heading too which as I had no set plan I thought would be cool to go and see. I had a really nice time but I've since found out it was a scam which is a shame!

Basically it cost 40 pound for the tea ceremony which I thought was a bit steep but I'd only just got to china and had no idea what things cost and the girls paid the same so I thought it was all cool. But.. the scam is that the girls work for the tea ceremony place and the tea and 40 pound is loads of money in china! so they go back get the money they paid over and share out mine.. like I said I had a good time just a shame to find out it was a con! And now I don't know whether the story they told me about monkeys collecting one ot the types of tea is true or not...

The Bund at Shanghai which is the main waterfront of the city. Impressive buildings although due to the weather / pollution I didn't get to see the sun the 3 days I was there!

So that was very briefly the end of new zealand and australia and here's some china! my first morning in Shanghai I was very excited to see this chinese gate leading to an old part of shanghai.

And 36 hrs later after an awesome leaving drinks and a long flight I was on a random bus heading into Shanghai! Thats how you make a bridge look more exciting put neon lights all over it!

And then it was goodbye to Manly and Sydney! This is the view looking back at manly from the boat as I headed into work on my last day.

Another shot post paintballing so we should look a bit messier now... it all started off a bit tentatively for me - I think I hid behind a tree for the first game! but we were in a group of about 40 and when lunch came for them we stayed out and played 3 on 3 on a small map which was great as me and jake got to shoot Dom who was the paralegal next to me that joined a week after me - he's the one with his hand up. Check our awesome army poses I think we look pretty good!

So I don't have many pictures of these 8 weeks in Sydney. It was an amazing time I really enjoyed myself and made some great friends but when you're just chilling out with friends it feels a bit strange to crack out the camera all the time. So amongst other things I....

joined the netball and 5-a-side football team for norton rose, formed a three man cycling group with Jake and Dom, went kayaking around mosman with everyone in this picture at one time or another, went out for countless lunches, dinners, drinks and parties, maybe the most memorable meal was the time jake was meant to cook for all of us be we'd all been out the night before at a 6 the next night we turned up and he was still too hungover to cook so we got take away! otherwise it was the party me and Dom went to where there was a whole goat on a spit roast!, went on secondment to Aussie Homeloans and had to manage a team of temps for 5 weeks, beat Bill the senior associate at squash a couple of times, really enjoyed living on Manly beach with Dave who was a very chilled out surfer and a great guy my second night there we played poker with a couple of his friends til about 3 in the morning and then at the end of that week he gave me the keys and said he was off to Bali surfing for 2 weeks and he'd see me when he got back!, became an avid swans supporter (I now have a swans jacket which everyone from Norton Rose gave me as a leaving present!) and just explored sydney made some awesome friends and had a brilliant time.

Most of all I'll miss the people and especially the guys above so you know who they are in order left to right it goes Nancy, Dom, Jen, Me, Harry and Jake and I'll miss all of them. This was my leaving weekend so with some monster hangovers we headed to paintballing (obviously via the McDonalds pick me up stop!) which was an awesome day.

After drinks and paintballing for my last weekend I left my final sunday in Australia free to sort everything out and chill out so I went back to Captain Cooks landing point as it was one of my favourite trips out of sydney, there were meant to be whales (which remained elusive!) and I managed to forget my camera the first time so I thought I take some photos!

After walking back from the landing point I was too late for the kayaking we had planned for the afternoon so I decided to head to this national park by the beach - this is me reading all about China! Note the expertly set up self timer to get this shot...

The official landing point of one Captain Cook. This is a really nice place to go and then you can walk along the cliffs in search of whales although despite going at peak whale time I saw none!

The view from Manly Head at sunset which was a nice cycle along the beach and up a big hill away from my house. I went running along Manly beach at night too and one time ended up at manly head in the dark which was cool although there were loads of bandicoots chilling out there which apparently aren't dangerous but I didn't know that!

Unforgetable I was walking to work one morning and a pod of dolphins turned up. So cool to see them all I could only catch the tips of theit fins with my camera which is a shame.

A picture of Hyde Park fountains as I went past after a cycle with Jake and Dom. We went to centenial park on a really nice day but we got off to a bit of a slow start as we had to wait for the bike shop to open so I could buy a helmet. So to start with our keen cycling team was a bit like an early morning coffee group...

Coming back from Sydney to Manly on the Saturday morning after another big Friday night out. The Opera house is really very impressive and I never did get over it I was that keen tourist sat at the front of the boat most mornings as we headed into Sydney Harbour.

Perks of going on secondment at Aussie - seats to the State of Origin rugby league match between NSW and QLD. The senior associate from Norton Rose that set up the secondment was a bit miffed when he wasn't invited and I was but it was great to get a chance to go!

Me and jake trying to keep dry when it started raining. We had good seats right by the pitch but they definitely weren't covered from the elements!

Aussie Rules Football! Me and Jake from work headed there this was my first match and while a lot of it went over my head it was great fun - Go the Swans! (Sydney swans are in red and got a thrashing at the hands of the guys in Blue that day)

Me in my room at Dave's - this doesn't show the room at all but I'm having a good time! I was here for 4 weeks then I moved into the sun room at the front of the house looking over the beach.

Cooking for one for the first time ever! Decided to play my banker first with Chicken Fajita but I did manage quite a few dishes eventually and even a stroganoffa and thai green curry at one point! I'm quite a fan of good food so learning to cook was a bit of a necessity!