Peanuts with chopsticks - a cue for a song?

1. A computer at last. How does one survive without? Biting of the nails constantly. However, when faced with Chinese script, a strong inclination to give up emerged. Perserverence and pigeon English enabled me to get an English keyboard.

2. We are so adept at using chopsticks that we surpassed ourselves today eating peanuts. Knives and forks are long forgotten. The food is suspicious and as I mentioned in my text I declined the rape of slippery mushrooms and tough foster mother's cured meat. As for Tofu I dunno about that one.

3. Can you imagine that we considered not visiting Beijing, what folly that would have been. A surprisingly modern city and wide roads and calm traffic. All seems orderly and no litter to be seen. From the neck down clothes are much as we know them, though one or two older ladies wear pyjamas on their bikes. How health and safety conscious we are and what a shock it is to see people riding bikes with umbrellas, no lights and no helmets; babies in the front seats of cars with no restraints and windows open.

4. Our guide and organiser from Yunnan met us in Beijing and reported that there were a thousand earthquakes a day in China - protests about issues, which can be discussed with friends but not in the media. A lovely guide, called Lucy, English name, wondered why the United States was so developed; it being only 200 years old, whilst China with a 2000 year history and culture is so far behind. How do you respond to that? The young are so keen to see China develop and believe that foreign influence can help that. It will come from without and not within.

5. It was but two years ago that education became free. Libraries were non existant and people had little contact with books. Even now books are not readily available. Every morning as we sat at breakfast we could hear the local school children being drilled in their chants. The teacher speaking ov er the loudspeaker would instruct and they all shouted in unison. This lasted for 30 minutes every morning. The morning ritual seems to occur all over Beijing, be it Tai Chi or chants, in the parks or the corriders of the Temple of Heaven. Our daily swim before work, their daily exercise or chant.

6. The Mings and Qings were foremost in our tours of Beijing. As ever the mean always plagues me. Don Cooper never leaves my side! One emperor wrote 'the way of heaven is profound and mysterious and the way of mankind is difficult. Only if we make a precise and united plan and follow the doctrine of the mean, can we rule the country well' What do you say to that?

7. Our arrival in Guilin was blighted - it being 2.30 a.m. when we arrived at the hotel. We had to get up at 7.30 to be ready to go on the boat trip to the Karst landscape. Clouds cov ered Karst certainly. Postcards will have to give the full impression.

8. The great wall was impressive and more impressive was the fact that I made it to the second tower. The steps were steep and uneven and quite a few folks were staggering up and down. Jan was ill unluckily and managed to deposit her lunch over the wall.

9. The eyes are tired - so long for now.

Slanty eyes