It’s like ‘Guess Who’:
ANCIENT POYSER isn’t Dad….
he’s older….
any other ideas….?
It’s your cousin, Richard!

Why China? Good question… a few reasons really, main one was timing – we were ready to stop for a while (we were getting a bit numb from 7 months of sight seeing) and China seemed like the best bet. It’s a huge place overflowing with culture, history and sights so there’s plenty to occupy us. Given China’s rise to power it’s really interesting to be here inside the beast. Beijing’s an amazing city – it’s huge, bustling and far more developed that we thought it would be. It’s also cheap to live here and we can have a great lifestyle for a fraction of the costs back home. There’s certainly plenty of Buddhist influence here, although it’s more apparent in other countries – Vietnam and Laos in particular. We’ve been to a couple of temples here in Beijing and they’re a little faux – the monks wear Chinos and patent leather shoes under their robes! There’s a temple (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fayuan_Temple) in the south of town that was built in the 7th century, I’m going to trek over and visit that soon – hopefully it’s managed to retain it’s tranquility.

uncle Denis