China

When you think Beijing, you think of little chinese men on bikes, with temples everywhere, and polution, lots of pollution, this is Beijing!



This is one of my favourite photos, what I like about it is not the beautiful gnarled tree, the crazily shaped rocks, or the shiny metal fence...what?...the reason I like it is because of the absolute psycho looking at me, hello!!!



This is the "forbidden city", not quite forbidden now, just pay a bit of cash, no probs...



Actually this is also the "forbidden palace/city", now forbidden to no one, unless one of those people who can´t go outside...



Two average people just chillin´ hanging out, this is what everyone wears all the time in China, really. They take the hats off to go swimming though, obviously!!!



This was an awesome day, one of my first days in China and I see 2 Shaolin Grandmasters!!! Well they weren´t actually grandmasters, ok ok, or from shaolin, bu they weer monks. And that guy probably has a weapon in that plastic bag, without a doubt.



The aftermath of this picture wasn´t pretty. The women was posing for someone next to me and she took major offence at me taking a piccy without asking. Maybe she´s a fugitive on the run or a film star??! Or maybe she´s just bonkers.



Me and my brazilian friend Deborah, lovely girl!!



This heron is a sign of luck, prosperity, blah, blah, blah, and really big metal eggs...



Me, Kim and Alex. An englishmen, a Korean and a chinaman went into a bar, and got drunk, loads. Happy days, happy nights, Corner Jazz Bar, Qingdao!



This is the world famous dragon tree and the world famous giant egg stone, and a man pretending to be a duck, good job.



This is graffitti chinese style, takes ages, that says, "Alex was ´ere 2004" in chinese, haha, it´ll take them ages to get that off.



This like everything else in China is the world famous cube rock, haven´t you heard of it???? It´s...good.



These are some of my students, there all Korean. The older kid with the glasses was named "no name" because he couldn´t chose a western name! He always looked as if he´d just woken up, and laughed at all my jokes, and everything in general. Amy next to him was the sweetest little girl in the world! Mike, the "slightly" larger kid on the right is No name´s brother, he ate constantly and was a little conscious of his weight, as were we all. Steven named himself after me, and I thought this was weird but cool at the same time. A good bunch to teach, except there house was always sooo hot, like a sauna, I fell asleep a few times, not good...



If I were a roofing enthuisiast, then this would be on my wall, or it would be in the centre of a sexy dirty roofing magazine, pages stuck together, definitely.



This is how you got down from the top of the wall, I wanted to go really fast but this old women´s brake was broken, she probably saved my life... don´t even ask how we got up there!!! Jesus.



Your probably getting a little tired of these "look how steep" it is photos, but I just want you to know that this part was steeper, higher and more dangerous than the previous photos,but no crash fences!! Just some bloke looking the wrong way, nice.



One of the steeper bits, no idea why they couldn´t just go round this rediculously steep part. Fitted with two crash fences for "safety", more so that you break less bones when you fall, and smash your self into the fence, nice. Note the old women and men storming up without a care!! In England we´d have an escalator I´m sure.



This is the Great Wall near Beijing, this was probably the coldest day ever recorded, and yes the steps were as steep as they look!!!



One of thousands of terrible English signs, thanks for the effort though, nearly there!!



This is in Beijing, temple of ah-hem, no idea.



This is Qingdao pier where I spent 8 months. I didn´t spend 8 months on the pier mind you, although it was very nice. I only went there twice. China was amazing. More later!!