If there’s one word I could use to describe China, it is BIG. Everything is big – cities, rivers, bridges, buildings, historic monuments etc.

Let me tell you about the size of some of the cities we visited. Shanghai has 19 million, Beijing 17 million, Chongqing 33 million, Xian 8 million and Chengdu, which we were told is a small city, has 6 million with 13 million in the greater metropolitan area. Coming from Australia with a population of about 20 million, the volume of people is mind-blowing.

The Yangtze River is BIG also. It is the third longest river in the world, and we sailed up it for 9 days. In places it is 8kms wide! It is a wall-to-wall “industrial factory” all the way from Shanghai to Chongqing where we disembarked. We sailed under about 150 brand-new huge cable-bridges, mostly identical in structure. The amount of ship-building along the banks is amazing as is the number of ships plying up and down the river. We would have passed hundreds of thousands of ships during our voyage. The air pollution is big and suffocating along the river. BIG seems inadequate to describe the Three Gorges Dam Project, with over 600kms of water banked up behind it!

The buildings in the cities are BIG also. Shanghai is growing so rapidly. In the last 17 years, one side of the river has developed from nothing into the most amazing city. It is called the Manhattan of the East and the buildings are beautiful. We travelled on the Shanghai’s Mag-Lev train at 431kph – the fastest commercial train in the world. In Beijing we saw the Birds Nest and Water Cube, both amazing structures. The Birds Nest is more beautiful up close than on TV.

In Xian we visited the Terracotta Warrior Army which is VERY BIG, and is now called the Eighth Wonder of the World. It is a mind-blowing experience to visit this site. China is a country steeped in a rich and full history. Our beautiful young national guide, comes from Xian. She is now 27 and had never seen blue sky or white clouds until she visited Shanghai when she was 21! What does that tell you about China?

We had a wonderful time at the Panda Reserve in Chengdu, and would have loved to have been able to share the experience with our grandchildren. We will enjoy showing our panda photos to them.

Everything in Beijing is BIG – the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, Tiananmen Square (we were told it is the largest square in the world, and 1 million people can stand in it), and of course, the Great Wall of China. Walking (climbing!) on the Great Wall is an experience we will never forget.

As lovers of Asian food, we are now sworn off Chinese Banquets (32 in a row…) and are now eating Italian food in Hong Kong. Another stand-out experience was being able to walk on Mt Huang (Yellow Mountain), a World Heritage Site. We visited this from the Yangtze going first by coach, then cable-car, and finally on foot.

On leaving China, we felt both exhausted and exhilarated. Our lasting impressions are of a country more modern and less officious than we had expected, of beautiful and industrious Chinese people trying so hard to please and care for us, of a BIG country developing rapidly with a history stretching back thousands of years BC. In spite of its ever-present air pollution, the cities are full of trees and parks and the countryside is beautiful. Their one-child-policy has arrested the growth in population, and has brought interesting social consequences. Their aim is to be the top world power by 2050, and at the rate they are growing it will surely happen. Maybe we should all start learning Mandarin!