Disney

It might not have been the most cultural of attractions but that didn't matter to me today as I travelled to Disneyland Hong Kong with an excited grin on my face.

I am not ashamed to say that I absolutely love Disney parks and am lucky enough to have now visited three different ones. The atmosphere inside is always so upbeat and I have to admit that I even got a little bit starstruck as Nads and I had our photo taken with Mickey himself.

Did You Know?: The Disney parks in California, Florida, Paris and Tokyo are all bigger than the one in Hong Kong, making Disneyland Hong Kong one of the least known and officially the smallest Disney park in the world!

Shanghai Serenity

Nestled in amongst the busy streets of Shanghai is this place, Yuan Gardens or 'Gardens of Peace', and it is every bit the traditional Chinese gardens that you could picture in your head. There are rockeries that stand tall next to the serene water features filled with koi, turtles and ducks and then there are the beautifully constructed old-style buildings that are dotted throughout.

The gardens were first created nearly half a millennium ago and they cost so much money they nearly made the emperor at the time bankrupt! Since then they have changed owners many, many times and they have also been damaged in many wars, including World War II. Currently though they are owned by the Chinese government who take great care of the place to ensure that it remains a peaceful retreat for all those wishing to escape the hustle and bustle of one of China's biggest cities.

Did You Know?: When they created the rockeries they didn't have any fancy glues or cements so the heavy rocks were stuck together and held in place by a mixture that included crushed sticky rice!

Army Of Warriors

In my opinion, The Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an should be included on any historical 'Wonders of the World' list. After highlighting them as the one thing I wanted to make sure I saw in China, I finally got to visit them today and, as a history nerd, I loved it.

What is really interesting is that their discovery in the 1970's was a total accident. A local farmer was out digging a hole for a new well and fell through into a huge chamber. Inside this chamber he found the first few of the thousands of warriors you can see in the photo and since that day excavations are still going. The photo shows 'Pit One' (The farmer fell through at the front of this area) and they have so far uncovered 2,000 soldiers and expect to find another 4,000+! Then there are Pits 2 and 3 where they are finding many more, it is one almight army. Amazingly, no record of Emperor Qin Shi Huang (The first Emperor of China) coming up with the idea, it being created or it being hidden has ever been found in Chinese records!

The warriors were created to look after the Emperor in the afterlife and, if you think about it, they have done just that. By becoming one of the most famous places in the whole world they have ensured that they, the Emperor's tomb and all of it's contents will be protected by historians, archaeologists and governments for many many years.

Did You Know?: Every single warrior has it's own individual face, they have never found two the same. Even each terracotta horse in the army is different!

The Forbidden City

This is me, outside The Forbidden City in Beijing. Built just over 600 years ago it was home to two dynasties of Chinese emperors; The Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty. It is a huge city within a city and has a rather large wall and 52m wide moat running around the outside to protect it.

Nads and I were just two of thousands upon thousands who visit the site every day making it one of Beijing's top attractions. It only cost us about £4 to get in but back when it was home of the emperors entry was free, the only hitch was that if you weren't invited you were killed!

Did You Know?: Throughout the site there are 309 large pots that used to hold lots of water. They were there to be used in case a fire broke out but ironically, during the cold winters, fires were lit under them to stop the ice freezing!

The Great Wall

Here I am at The Great Wall of China, the last of the 4 Seven New Wonders Of The World that I am visiting on this trip. The first thing to note is that The Great Wall isn't actually one really long wall, instead it is many quite long walls used to link up natural defences like impassable mountainsides.

I visited the Mutianyu part which is over 3,000 metres long and has 26 watchtowers (You can spot some of them in the photo). It was a truly impressive sight and there were lots of steps as the wall rose and fell with the hillside. They were those tiny types of steps that feel like you are doing lots of small footsteps in quick succession, so quite tiring!

Despite all the effort that went into building it though, it actually became pretty useless once invaders to China decided to come from the sea and even more useless once planes were invented. Funnily enough, if it wasn't for tourism it might not even exist like it does today and even now there are stretches that have totally collapsed and piles that are still illegally plundered for building materials!

Did You Know?: The Wall being visible from space is a myth and not true. It might be long but it's simply not wide enough!

The Summer Palace

Today I travelled to the outskirts of Beijing to visit The Summer Palace. Ever since an Emperor made Beijing the country's capital nearly a whole millennium ago this site has been important but most of what can be found there today was built in the 18th century.

The site includes an absolutely huge lake that was entirely man-made. Nads and I hired a pedalo and spent nearly an hour on the water and we only got round the tiniest part. It was a pretty grand place and full of lots of impressive Chinese style buildings and artwork. It was also pretty knackering walking over the hill you can see both on the way in and the way out! Good training for The Great Wall.

Did You Know?: In the late 19th century, Empress Dowager Cixi stole funds from the Chinese Navy to do up the palace as a holiday home to spend the rest of her life in!

The Birds Nest

Here I am in front of the 2008 Olympic Stadium in Beijing. It is called 'The Birds Nest' because of the way the metal looks like lots of twigs formed together to make a nest.

As a sports geek it was a very exciting place to visit and I had great fun wandering around it and seeing where the Olympic flame was left burning during the games. I even went inside and I got to wander around the seats and see the track where Usain Bolt made his name 5 years ago.

As well as the stadium, the famous 'Water Cube', which held all the aquatic events of the 2008 Games, is still standing and looking spectacular nearby.

Islands In The Bay

I have spent the last couple of days in one of the most beautiful places on earth; Ha Long Bay! It is in the north of Vietnam and is made up of nearly 2,000 different limestone islands that lurch up high out of the water.

It is said that, centuries ago, an ancient dragon came to help the local Vietnamese people when they were being invaded. It crashed into a giant rock and sent boulders the size of islands scattering across the bay. This meant that the invaders couldn't find their way to land and the local people remained safe. That is the traditional story of how the bay was created and sailing amongst the islands was like travelling into a beautiful, pop-up book of the story.

Did You Know?: Ha Long Bay has featured as a location in two James Bond films and was the finish line in the Top Gear Vietnam special.

The Temple Next Door

This picturesque temple is right next door to where we are staying in Hoi An, in fact it can be seen right outside our bedroom window!

It's an old building dedicated to something called Confucianism (Conn-fyu-shunn-ism). Confucianism isn't technically a religion but it is a set of beliefs that people choose to follow.

It was started around 2500 years ago in China by a man called Confucious. At this time things weren't good in the country and he became a teacher who created a set of rules that people must follow. They included things like respecting your elders, treating other people how you would like to be treated yourself and knowing that if you have made a mistake you must try your hardest to correct it. It was very strict but also incredibly popular and many people still follow these rules today.

Did You Know?: One thing people used to say about Confucious was that if his mat wasn't straight he wouldn't sit on it. This might sound really fussy but it's actually the core of his beliefs that things must be done properly so that they are correct. Think of your writing, if you don't start a sentence with a capital letter and finish it with the correct punctuation is just isn't right and doesn't make proper sense.

War Tunnels

Today I found myself crawling through the Cu Chi Tunnels not far from Ho Chi Minh City. These famous tunnels were used by large numbers of Vietnamese fighters during the country's war against the USA . They run for many kilometres, different tunnels going in different directions but all connected.

You can see how small and cramped these tunnels were for me but they used to be even narrower because they have been widened for tourists! Imagine having to live inside these for days on end, sharing your space with poisonous centipedes and scorpions as well as a whole village worth of people.

Did You Know?: The only time people left these tunnels, even though it got so hot inside, was after dark when there were no US soldiers around. However, if bombing was happening it could be days before anyone went to the surface!

A Famous Post Office

There can't be too many post offices in the world that are tourist attractions but this one in Ho Chi Minh City certainly is.

Saigon Central Post Office was built when this part of Vietnam was under the control of the French and it was designed by a man called Gustave Eiffel...the same man who designed a certain famous tower in Paris that shares his name!

Because of the fame of his Eiffel Tower creation this post office in the middle of the city now has many, many visitors a day that don't even want to post anything, including me!

Cambodia's Darkest Hour

Today I visited the building in the photo below, it is a museum now but it has a famous past; starting life as a high school but being turned into a prison called S-21.

In 1975 Cambodia was taken over by a group called the Khmer Rouge led by a man called Pol Pot. Within hours of taking over he started moving people from the cities to the countryside to live as farmers and within one week the cities were deserted. The Khmer Rouge bombed banks because they didn't want people to use money any more, they closed down schools because they didn't think people needed educating (This is when the building below became a prison) and they also shut down hospitals. Sadly many, many people didn't survive this because they simply didn't know how to farm properly to make enough food.

Pol Pot also didn't want any intellectuals (Educated, clever people) in his country so he arrested every teacher, doctor, lawyer and politician his soldiers could find and put them in prisons like S-21. The soldiers even arrested anyone wearing glasses or having soft hands as this was seen as a sign of intelligence! Those that were arrested also had their whole family captured too and had to stay in prison until they admitted they were spies. If they didn't admit to this (They rarely were spies) the soldiers found ways to force the prisoners to say they were. Once they had said they were they were killed with their family.

Unfortunately this lasted for nearly four years until other countries found out what was happening and in that time 3,000,000 people lost their lives. Cambodia is not the biggest country on the planet so that works out at more than 1 in every 4 people!

It may seem weird to think of turning places like S-21 (Or even the concentration camps in Germany) into museums about times like this but the Khmer Rouge is a big part of Cambodia's history and it is agreed that keeping these places open means that no one will ever forget those that died and it will help stop someone like Pol Pot ever being in control again. What do you think?

Angkor Wat

Today I visited the world famous Angkor Wat site, it is so iconic that the building behind me features on the Cambodian flag! We got up super early (4:30am) to go and see the sunrise and then spent about 5hrs wandering around this and surrounding sites.

Angkor translates to 'Capital City' and Wat means 'Temple' meaning that this construction was the main religious building in the country when King Suryavarman II ordered it to be built around 800 years ago and it stands out because of it's 65m high towers that were built to look like lotus flowers.

There were so many buildings and temples to explore, many were still being rescued from the jungle that had swallowed them up after centuries of neglect (At Ta Phrom there are still many huge trees with roots as thick as tree trunks wrapped around the carved rocks) and at Angkor Thom there are massive faces carved in stone and a long construction called 'The Terrace of the Elephants' where huge images of elephants are carved into the walls and columns are made to look like trunks. It was fascinating to look around the ruins of a culture I know so little about and I definitely want to learn more about the Khmer.

Golden Buddha

This is the largest, solid gold Buddha on the planet. It measures over 4 metres tall, more than 3 metres across and it weighs an impressive at 5.5 tonnes!

It's over 700 years old and it's said to be worth £28,500,000 but they only discovered it was made of solid gold in 1955! It turns out it was totally covered in plaster to hide it's value from those invading Thailand at the time and it was only after it was moved from it's original home to this newer one in Bangkok that the plaster cracked and the discovery was made.

Twins

Today I took a trip to central Kuala Lumpur to check out one of the most famous modern landmarks in Asia; The Petronas Towers. Both towers are linked together by a bridge and up until 2004 it was the tallest building in the world. It's 451.9 metres tall and has 88 floor plus FIVE basements!

Next Door Neighbours

This is the Sri Mahamariamman temple. It was built in the 1870s which makes it the oldest Hindu temple still being used in Malaysia and it is the centre for Hinduism in Malaysia. It is also right next door to my hostel in the heart of Kuala Lumpur's Chinatown.

Did You Know?: The incredibly beautiful roof might look old but it was only added in the 1960s.

Singapore's Super Trees

These aren't your ordinary trees, they're made out of metal and concrete! There's a total of 18 'supertrees' at Supertree Grove with over 150,000 plants planted on them.

The tallest is 50m high and has a restaurant at the top. The others are 25m high and some have solar panels on the top to generate power while the others act like exhaust pipes to let out the hot air from the huge conservatories nearby that have thousands of plants on display to the public.