A very busy day, we were up early to be ready for the kitchen fitters who at last have turned the corner from stripping out and preparation to installation and with some of the units in place there is at last room to move and a finishing date on the horizon but a lot to do before then. We went to drop off the washing at the launderette which is miles away, I suppose there is little demand around here, most of the mansions probably have staff to do it! Anyway we then headed on to the Southern Cemetery at Chorlton where we cracked on with the spring clean up of the family graves and planting out bedding. It looks very well, it was the first time Mandy and I had been able to go together after my retirement. They looked worse than they were as the staff cut around areas with bulbs that are tended but by the end of May they are smothered in long grass. The battery strimmer is a great tool at sites without electricity and has made the task less awful. The Hardy family memorial bench has survived the winter intact save for a few bird droppings, we'll return and tidy that further with appropriate materials, actually it a lovely picnic spot.

The weather was again warm and sunny but a cooling front with rain is about to cross to the west although the rain if it comes will be helpful in the garden. Watering the bedding plants and lawn seeds is a twice a day job at present. We then went on to visit cousin Trish and Derek at Sale and popped into Marks & Spencers to get our fruit for tonight ( dieting day) but succumbed to one of their new range of ice creams, think Magnum only better. I've edited quite a few DVDs from the China trip now and lots of clips are on Youtube and the DVDs are being listed on our shop page. We've arranged to have our belated Birthday meal tomorrow at the Dog in Nether Peover with Trish and Derek.

Looking back at Beijing in our photos tonight, the trolley locations are mostly familiar from our last visit although new trolleys and certainly startling are those on the BRT services. A huge city but we covered a fair bit in a day even though we had our only day time rain mid afternoon onwards.

continuing the retro look with photos of our coverage around China continues with our visit to the one vehicle trolleybus line which operates in the Yangzhuang Meikuang area of Tai'an which we visited after leaving Beijing. Something of a system size shock I suppose. The good weather came back and we saw three decrepit old trolleys standing at the town end of the line run by the Shandong Energy Feicheng Mining Group. The coal was no longer being mined and it was down to maintenance and most miners had gone to work elsewhere. We though ourselves lucky to see it at all but were amazed when our guide found the old driver and discovered that there were still a few journeys carried out on the sole serviceable trolleybus. He agreed to slow down and also give a cab ride etc and after that we waited until an hour later when a slightly less co operative young lady phased by the cameras took it out. A very short run and now covered by frequent minibuses traveling a wider area and unlikely to remain active over its short run perhaps 1.5km. There was one more old trolley wreck in a nearby back yard but the old fellow who lived there was nervous about the pile of rubbish he's gathered around it.

I'm now working on the the garden at home on this bank holiday Monday with fine sunny warm weather, the back garden needs weeding like mad and I've again attempted to patch the front lawn and planted out the front bedding plants. The first DVD from the trip is nearly ready, just need to make the cover for Hong Kong island buses. ( lasts 90 minutes)

As the month ends on this public holiday weekend in England we are bathed in glorious warm sunshine under blue skies and with the gardens all in bloom it really makes you appreciate how luck we are. I was able to stagger on to near ten last night before heading up to bed, the house is upside down with the new kitchen work which won't make much progress as Monday is a public holiday and everything is hard to find, we will go for dinner at the Dog this evening and have a ready made microwave dinner Monday. Hopefully if I have any energy left I'll make a start editing Hong Kong tonight. Meanwhile lets look back at the frustrating city of Jinan where we landed last Wednesday, we should have stayed there worked out a plan and then started early, instead they had us in a town further off, rotten hotel and arrived at the end of the rush as the trolleys vanished. Truth never seemed to come into a conversation as the Chinese hate to lose face admitting a lack of knowledge, it was generally reassuring that at hoe the workmanship and finishing is as bad as most Chinese items bought here.

I thought I'd put out another selection of photos in my task of working back through the trip to China, Mandy is making beans on toast, no mean feat with no kitchen, we'd forgotten they won't be back until Tuesday it being a bank holiday weekend. I'll get cracking with the DVDs as soon as possible.
This selection was taken in Shenyang. The video will be best as it has line-sides of unidirectional running of two trams on driver training.

A pleasant mix of Shenyang trams built in Changchun to the north, the existing routes were 1,2 and 3 but joined by the longer interurban route 5 recently with drivers still under training. There are some shots at sunset on the train between Shenyang and Changchun. Hunnan as it appears on line maps seems to be a new part of Shenyang which the trams serve. The city buses show the extent of English language in China in these times.

Yes at last here we go with photos of our epic adventures through China and I thought it would be easiest to work backwards through the shots starting with our final destination which was Changchun where the traditional tramway has grown a route serving the new west railway station.

I took a few shots on the way to the airport of trucks and other than that it covers our tram/light rail visit to the depot which services both lines and illustrates the only remnants of the old fleet. Although now rather mundane the renewal in the last years of the high floor trams means that it has a uniform corporate look devoid of adverts and just tiny fleet numbers below the cab side window, the route allocation is pre- stenciled on.  Much of the city has extended as have the roads, locations we saw before buried beneath flyovers. The cars 43 I think we purchased from Shenyang and not Changchun itself a tram producing city. The route to the new railway station itself  opened last year is still being worked on with the curious sight of left hand running on the stretch to the west station terminus. We had our group photo shot with the tram management the top gun once more being a lady.

sorry about the time lsg the internet connection has been vety slow on the last two days. we hadva good day in shenyang with its light rsil stroke tram lines although they are rather old fadhioned in operation and tickeying etc. there are now four tram linesvroutes 1,2,3,5 and another under test which links route three snd the route one snd two airport lines.. this section which hss yet to open is being used for driver training and we noticed that this included using both tracks st the same time in the same direction, this is something rarely seen other than enthusiast specials on othervwise closed or otherwise unoperated sections. our driver was very quick off the mark to understand whatvwascrequired and hanging out of the bus window i managed to get some quite superb footage of the operations which will certainly be ahighlight of the trip and apretty rare event. surpeisingly yhe tram csrsin shenyang are built n changchung up the road and those of changchun built in shenyang back doen the road, all very strange but i suppose it shows market forces in operation. the weather was almost perfect save sfor a few spots from one cloud which drifted over briefly. the day was a vaste improvement on the day vbefore with frustrations all the time and was helped byba jovial guide we called simon, they all oick an englidh name, and he had an amazing grasp of english history. noneof the guides really knewanything about the transport in detail in their city and we discovered line