Currently sat alone writing this in a dorm room in a Buddhist Monastery
at 2070m up Mt Emei, so got I have a bit of time to write some stuff down.

My family may be imagining it like the one we stayed in in
Japan, at £2.85 they would be wrong, I am currently very happy I carried
my down jacket up here and dreading my next trip to the toilet (must
not drink any more water).

Anyway had 2 nights in Xian and saw the terracotta army, I have
always found the history of the army very interesting but as I
expected seeing it in real life did not add anything.

Booked a ticket to Chongqing with the intention of getting a cruse
down the Yangzi but after looking at the dates realized that it would
be a bit tight to get my visa extension after the cruse so changed my
ticket for one to Chengdu, extensions in Chengdu take five days but in
Leshan they only take 2, so jumped straight on a coach on arrival at
Chengdu; plus it meant I got to see the grand Buddha (71m tall carved
into a cliff).

Stayed a couple of days in Leshan and got my visa done in 4 hours-!! On
the second day I took a trip to a local village with a 70+ year old
Chinese man and 4 Chinese students. Was really great to get off the
tourist trail and spend a day chatting to young and old Chinese people.

Back in my hotel reading the LP I realised that Mt Emei was only 40min
by bus so here I am. (For my dad, over 2000m height gain today all by
steps, summit tomorrow morning 3077m)

No idea where I will go next, how exciting.

Update:
Got mugged by a monkey today, he got my bottle of coke but not my cookies-!!