Today was a driving day to get to Shanghai. We left our hotel at the foot of Yellow Mountain in the  town of Huangshan at 8.00am and filling up with fuel hit the motorway. Morning tea and lunch stops were at service centres as it was feared that the trip into Shanghai which has a population about the size of Australia would be very tedious the later it became. We arrived at 2.45pm and then had the afternoon to settle in before a birthday dinner for John this evening.

No photos to show, although there were several tunnels and many high rise apartment buildings on the route.

Tomorrow we are meeting  MG car club of China members and visiting the MG factory and servicing our cars. Vulcan has performed very well so far.

A 6am departure from the hotel in this quaint world heritage village and a drive out of town.

As today is May 1 and a public holiday in China, it was decided to beat some of the crowds to Yellow Mountain and arrive early. We parked the cars at the hotel and walked to the ticket office, bus to the cable car and were on the mountain by about 8.30.

What an amazing mountain. Sheer granite cliffs and spectacular views. We were fortunate that our day started in sunshine as we were able to appreciate the views. However, as for about two thirds of the year late morning brought rain on the mountain. The many chinese visitors became yellow figures in the photos as they donned their yellow plastic rain coats they had bought on the mountain.

The paths were incredible…2 metres wide in many places and very well formed for kilometres of track. We caught one gondola up and walked up and down … 10 to 15 kms….eventually catching another gondola back…then bus and walking. What an amazing mountain.

Jingdeshen to Hongcun

This morning started when we met Alexandra and Lee at breakfast. They are Australian friends of Tony’s and spend multiple weeks each year in Jingdezhen while Alexandra creates beautiful artwork on ceramic pots/vases. We drove in a convoy to where her studio is and visited the antique and artists market as well. What fun it was to see the varied work of these chinese ceramic artists. Each artist seemed to have a different style and each was unique. We then visited where Alexandra creates her work. At the end of their 6 weeks, they ship her finished work back to Melbourne.

Temptation would have been great if there was any room in the car. With limited space I bought something small for each of our 5 grandchildren (yes…boys as well) and then a plate for me. However on buying the plate I had to agree with Ian that if it accidentally got broken he would be forgiven!

Leaving the chinaware was hard (we could have spent many more hours there) and we drove to Hongcun, a world heritage village. It was amazing. We had to park our cars outside the village and we walked in with minimum luggage to stay in a local guesthouse. We explored the town with its old wood carvings and historical buildings and enjoyed the afternoon.

A long day driving. Leaving Yichang at 7am we drove over 700 kms arriving at the hotel in Jingdezhen a little after 5. The first thing we noticed on the outskirts of the town were the blue and white ceramic light posts! How beautiful and not surprising as this town is internationally known for its chinaware. The hotel lobby shop had magnificent pots, tea sets and other china wares. Temptation…temptation…temptation. No room in the car but there is always the postal service!!!!

During the day on the freeway, the most notable thing, other than all 8 of the cars were very well behaved, was that we were mainly on the Yangzi river flood plain and the landform was mostly flat, a vast contrast to what we have been seeing the last few days and really since Laos.