  Wednesday i'm a day late writing this, i came straight back to the hotel last night and fell asleep. Yesterday was our first organised tour. We were going to another city about 2 hours from shanghai called hang zhou. We had to get up very early for the train, getting to the station for 6.30am. The train was a double decker with very little legroom for the taller traveller (such as myself). We hadn't had time for breakfast, so we grabbed some spicy beef noodles onboard. All chinese trains i've been on so far seem to offer free hot water for tea and noodles. Once off the train in hang zhou, we met our tour group outside the station. There must have been about 15 of us in total.
It was a chinese tour, so i was the only english person. Once everyone was accounted for, we headed to our first destination xi hu (west lake). The lake was very pretty, being surrounded by trees and several temples in the distance. We took a small boat to the island in the middle. The island is very special in that it is shaped like a plus sign in a box. This natural shape forms the chinese character for a field. Then inside the island, the areas are separated by water. It was very nice, and we came away with a few photos to show.
Next, we took another boat to the east side of the lake. Here, was a large pond full of carp. There was a lady throwing bread into the water to bring them closer. Some were absolutely huge, one even had a mouth bigger than mine! Seeing all the fish had made us hungry, so we jumped back into the bus and headed to a local hotel for lunch.
A selection of several dishes was brought to our table. It was all nice and not bad considering it was included in the tour price. After that we went to the main destination of the day Ling yin temple. The temple is one of the most famous and popular temples in china. Unlike some other tourist attractions, ling yin is a real practicing temple where they hold twice monthly ceremonies. The temple has been used by several of the chinese rulers, and some parts of it date back over 1000 years. Inside the buildings i saw some of the largest buddha statues i've ever seen. They have a real presence to them and make you feel very small. One of the buildings i felt was especially amazing. It was shaped like a cross, and inside had 500 buddha statues. Each one was different, and wherever you stood, you could see at least one of them looking at you. Lots of people come here to pray, and at each building you could see people burning insence and bowing down in front of the buddha's. Also on the tour, we visited tea and silk factories. It was good to see how they made their products and we had a go at stretching some silk to be made into a duvet.
The fibres were suprisingly strong and could be stretched quite far. After the tour had finished, we were dropped back at the station ready to head back to shanghai. We had just enough time for a quick dinner of noodles before heading back. This time, we were on the top floor of the train where we met three ladies who were very nice and chatty, they helped the journey to in quickly.
Once back at shanghai, we popped into mc donalds for some yoghurt drinks (don't think you can get them in the uk, but they're very nice). Finally we took the underground back to the hotel, arriving at about 10pm. It was a very long and tiring day, but definitely worth it. For those recieving this via email, see the attached picture which shows a great spelling mistake i found in shanghai underground station. Ladies, make sure you check your ring size before trying to get on a train! 
