OK First thing. We're not dead. Nor have we been in a plane crash or got the flu (well it's got an incubation period of 5-10 days so I guess we could have...) we've just been away from the internet and enjoying life! Incidentally we were both really impressed with China Southern who we flew with today - new planes, food was OK and the air hostesses were alot better looking than the Vietnam ones.

Hong Kong was great fun and our host, Nicolas, is an absolute star, a real trooper! We went to the rugby 3 days in a row and, hey, England won the final - Nicolas even politely applauded our victory which is no mean feat as he is French. En route (like the French?)to the final we beat Australia and, one of the favourites, Fiji, so beating New Zealand for our second consecutive win was all the more sweet. On top of that we then went back into town last night to watch England stuff Ireland - a great weekend was had by all (although Jen has stated on at least 30 occasions she never wants to see men with funny shaped balls again...(the old ones are the...oldest...)

So - to Beijing where we've already been to Tiananmen square where we were promptly shouted at and asked to leave by some scary looking Chinese Military types, not being ones to argue and remembering 1989 (and all that...) we duely obliged...it turns out they were kind of closing it off for the night...weird really to see this huge open place completely deserted at 8pm...incidentally (again) we might have got away with it and could have stayed there longer if Jen hadn't said 'let's follow them' when said scary blokes starting marching towards one end of the square...

We've got 6 days in Beijing before we head to Xi'an (terracotta warriors) and then onto the Yangtze and beyond...we have looked into cruises on the Yangtze and the cheapest we can find (for 3 nights with an English speaking guide) is 280 USD PER PERSON...we might be kayaking and camping at this rate.

In our 6 days here we've got loads to pack in, with, of course, trips to the great wall ("It sure is a great wall" - Richard Nixon, President of the USA 1972), the Forbidden City, and the Summer Palace amongst others. We are struggling to fit it all in. As per previous post we are now missing out the Phillipines and have thus re-routed via Bangkok which means another trip to British Airways tomorrow - if this one takes another seven hours I will take to Tiananmen Square myself tomorrow night with a placard demonstrating against British Airways...(didn't see any tanks today so I might be alright...)

We've had a squillion emails (well about 15) so apologies for being crap and not replying, we will do, without fail, tomorrow as soon as we find a decent connection in the City as the one at the hotel is a tad pricey...