For place names where I've stopped on route and a brief description, move your mouse over the red markers.
Position of rucksack indicates last known location.

The ancient city of Xi'an, once the capital of China and the oldest city dating back 5000 years with reams of history including the site of the Terracotta Warriors. As technically this was the end of my Trans-Sib route I decided to stay on a while before heading elsewhere. India, once again seems to have been postponed, I stayed to study Wu Shu (Chinese Kung Fu) and enrolled at University to learn Chinese. Things evolved, and continue to evolve. Despite Xi'an having a population way in excess of 7 million people there is nothing provided for the homeless, I decided to try and set up a soup kitchen. With the help of friends we began to run a soup kitchen from mid Dec '05, 4 days after the initial idea. It continues to develope. Kunming. Both myself and Hai Yue, a Korean Buddhist monk, took the train to Kunming. We were headed to the province of Yunnan to visit some of the south of China before continuing onto Tibet. Kunming is a beautiful city much greener and at an alltitude of about 1900m has a milder climate than Xi'an which was very welcome in the summer temperatures. We got the train to Hangzhou before flying back to Xi'an. A much more sedate town with a huge lake. Shanghai. I had purposely not booked my return flight to xi'an so that I could stay in Shanghai a few days. A friend came to visit as a national holiday began, National Day. Approx 130 million travelled on the 1st October and I think most of them must have come to Shanghai, it was madness, you literally couldn't move in the streets. Luckily I had been there a few days before the holiday began. Arrived in China 28th Sept '05 after visiting Europe to attend some retreats. Flew back from Paris to Shanghai. Beijing 3 days. Visit to the great wall of China, simply the most impressive construction I have ever seen. Had 2 nights in Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia, China. In 3 days I never saw another westener, I was the 1st visitor to the country this year. Hohhot. The trans-siberian express took me from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia into Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China. Last known sighting - Xi'an, China. Jan '06. Luoyang. The location of the only Shaolin Temple in China. The home of martial arts. Myself Michael and Carl all studied at the same Wu Shu Acadamy (Chinese Kung Fu) . As it was Carls 21st birthday, Michael and I decided to take him away for the weekend to visit the temple. The children are taken in at an early age and trained intensively, as a result they can reach a high standard whilst still very young. They put on a performance that was staggering, displaying levels of skill and agility that I could never attain. Dali. An historic city with an 'old city' atmosphere. Laid back and relaxed with mountain scenery and a huge freshwater lake it's a great place to hang out for a few days. Lijiang. Simillar to Dali in it's relaxed feel and anciet timber buildings, cobbled streets, canals and mountainous scenery. We initially stayed for 3 days. From here we were heading to Zhongdian and then onto Tibet. But whilst on route, after leaving hospital due to being treated for a 10 day spell of dysentery, I found myself back in hospital after our car collided with a bus on a winding mountain road. The car was a right off but nobody was injured except myself who had head injuries. The doctors wouldn't allow me to continue onto Tibet or fly to Europe for several weeks which meant I wouldn't be able to attend all my retreats. My time in hospital was interesting to say the least and despite being unfit to travel, eventually led to Hai Yue flying me back to Xi'an to attend a better hospital and doctor.