So, we’ve now visited the most densely populated country on the planet, China... or to give it’s official title, the People’s Republic of China, with an estimated population today of 1.42 billion; and we visited four of the highest populated cities: Shanghai, Chongqing, Chengdu and the capital, Beijing.

So, does this huge population mean we were struggling to fight through the crowds on the streets, well... not really! Didn’t know what to expect before we arrived and was pleased to find that getting around the place wasn’t that different from anywhere else we’ve been. The only thing that gave away the fact that so many people lived here was the unbelievable number of high rise blocks there were in every city we visited, and the further out of town we drove, the more of these there were. The further out of town the property was, the cheaper they were to buy or rent; but the further out they lived, the harder and dearer it was to get back into the city centre to work, a real Catch 22 situation for all city dwellers throughout the country. This high rise thing became even more apparent while on the internal flights we had, when the ranks of flats could be seen disappearing into the distant horizon of each and every city we flew over.

Driving is interesting, they drive on the right and rules of the road seem to be similar to those in America; for instance they can turn right on a red light if the traffic is clear from the left, the difference here is that they don’t wait for it to actually be clear. They have a driving test and it’s apparently quite stringent, but without exception all drivers seem to think that these rules of the road are mearly a suggestion... not an instruction! Also, as well as thousands of bicycles, there are countless silent assassins... aka electric scooters, which seem to get ridden anywhere and everywhere... road, cycle path, alleyway, pavement... and you have no idea they’re coming up behind you, as being electric they’re completely silent!

Main thing we’d heard before this trip was that the Chinese food was nothing like the takeaways we enjoy here. Well, yes they’re different for sure, but nowhere near as much as we were expecting. True that there were some interestingly different flavours and more dumplings than we have at home, as well as things we wouldn’t normally be served, like chickens feet in the soup for instance and even the poor old birds head in the KFC like dish we were served up in Shanghai, but on the whole the food was good here and we didn’t ever go hungry. Even so, although we enjoyed all of our food here, we’ll be happy to never have twenty-eight Chinese main meals on the bounce ever again......!!!