Well, this is it. The last post of the trip! Officially we've been off the road for a week now. It's been a very busy week, moving into an apartment, applying for the Guinness record, and catching up with friends who we hadn't seen in nearly half a year. The last few days into Beijing were by no means easy though. We hit some of the coldest weather since Tibet, strongest winds since Urumqi, and boatloads of trucks.

We manage to cover over 1,200km in three days as we make the choice to take the highway to get back down south to the coast where we have plans to visit Macau, Hong Kong, and Shenzhen.

So much to see in this area and so little time! We pass through the Ancient Phoenix City for a morning stroll and then another couple hundred kilometers onward we pass through the Zhangjiajie National Park where we visit the famous Tianzi Mountains, inspiration for the Hallelujah Mountains from Avatar.

3 days off at the beach in Sanya but we are kept busy as we participate in fundraising events with the hotel and Free Lunch for Children. We also meet with some of the local press talking about our trip and our charitable efforts. All in all, managed to raise nearly RMB40,000 to go towards school lunches in rural China!

Riding from Chengdu to Chongqing, getting kicked off the highway twice in the name of safety... Rain, mud, and construction on the National Roads sure sound safer to me! (end sarcasm)

Wondering what that circle in the center of our GPS track is? We took a day to tour around China's most famous lake, the high altitude Qinghai Lake before heading onwards on our path.

Though not as long or difficult as our stretch on the G219, our trip north from Lhasa and out of Tibet was not without its challenges! But by the end of the three days there was no denying we were starting the next big leg of our journey.

We make our final push into Lhasa, marking a few major milestones in our trip. It's not without it's challenges though as we find out 500km, 13 hours, and 3 mountain passes later...

Well the sand storms and desert heat from only a few weeks ago certainly seem far away now! Read about the start of our adventure on the G219 into Tibet as we hit snow, 5,000m high mountain passes, and the beautiful scenery of the Kunlun Mountains and into Tibet.

We met our competition for the world record today and it wasn't so bad as it may have at first seemed. Some creepy desert roads as we make our way to the most westerly point of our trip in Kashgar.