For some reason one Christmas years ago, I bought Tom a hard copy of the Lonely Planet guide to China, and he also bought one for me. It was a country that was fascinating for both of us, so we knew we needed to include it on our world tour.

‘Made in China’ is a phrase so familiar in the western world it is almost laughable – is anything ever made anywhere else?

China is all about superlatives, it’s a mad numbers game. The sheer size of the country and its population are hard to get your head around. We finished our Yangtze river cruise at Chongqing, a city we hadn’t heard of before. We then read in the guide book it has a population of 30.17 million (and counting). That’s half of the whole of the UK. 160 cities in China have a population count of over one million. Would two weeks be enough time to get to grips with this vast, mega landmass? To visit its cities but also its countryside and learn about both its ultra-modernity and see some of the most important mementoes from antiquity?

In the planning stages we decided that we needed to ensure we had pick-ups at airports and train stations during our time in China, hearing how little English there was.

Thank goodness we did, as it was next to impossible to buy anything without having a Chinese sim with we chat installed (which you couldn’t just do, you had to be referred by someone Chinese). QR codes were used to pay for everything. One way of keeping track of exactly where each of its 1.4 billion population are at any one time. For us, it was a place where our brilliant Revolut card hardly worked, so we went back to basics using cash for nearly everything.

Our itinerary was as follows: Shanghai – 2 days, Yangtze River cruise – 4 days, Cheng-du – 2 days, Xi-an – 2 days, Beijing (including day trip to the Great Wall) – 4 days.

We flew to Yichang for the start of the Yangtze river cruise, but took fast trains between the other cities, which were very efficient and spacious, clocking a top speed of 307km/h.

The trains were brand new with hot and cold water on tap – perfect for to prepare cup noodles for lunch!