The end is nigh...

...because this is my penultimate day of working for Shanghai Talk Magazine. I'm also nearing the end of my time in Shanghai, as I leave for Huangshan (the Yellow Mountains) on Friday night and only touch down briefly in Shanghai again on Monday before catching the epic 20 something hour train to Hong Kong. Added to this I fly home exactly one month from today on the 9 August.

Here are my travel plans so far:
First a weekend trip to climb a mountain in Huangshan (and due to my aversion to exercise I can already envision myself being grumpy and exhausted all the way up and all the way back down);

Then to Hong Kong for a visa run and also just to see the place. This, I think, will be the single most expensive few days of my whole trip since Hong Kong is generally quite prices and visa prices have tripled because of the Olympics;

After that I meet up with Sam, my flatmate in Shenzhen near the Hong Kong border, and together we travel to Guangzhou (on the way to Xian), Xian (with the terracotta army), Beijing (with the Great Wall etc.), and some other places further north, possibly in Inner Mongolia (where we would get to sleep in a yurt) and Haerbin (a Russian-influenced town in Northeast China). Don't worry Mum, I'm trying to put Sam off going to Tibet. Maybe we'll save that for another time.

After we do that vague loop around China we'll head back to Shanghai and hopefully I'll have a couple of days before my flight home to relax and maybe do another cookery course (to add to my Laos one and my Thai one) so that I can wow you all with Asian cuisine when I get back.

Working at Shanghai Talk has been great - I've got loads of articles printed which should help me find a job and there is lots of freedom to think of ideas and pursue them. It's really made me think magazines are the way to go for me. Shanghai itself has been equally good, at once stimulating and terrifying, exhilarating and down right smelly. Hopefully I'm off this evening to this event we went to last wednesday at this bar on the Bund (the posh British concession area by the river). For 200 RMB/head (about 15 quid), you get really nice buffet food and free flow Mumm champagne. Mmmm. Classy.

Will keep you posted about my Chinese adventure. Really looking forward to coming home and seeing you all very very soon. Zaijian (Mandarin for goodbye/see ya soon). Wo xihuan luxing, danshi wo xihuan wo de pengyou he wo de jia bi luxing da. (I like travelling but I like my friends and family/home more).