At just after 2pm on Saturday, 224 days and more than 10,000 miles after leaving London, the three of us finally arrived in Tiannanmen Square, Beijing. It's difficult to know what to say at the end of a trip like this - a strange mix of satisfaction for what we've achieved, and sadness that it's now over - but it's certainly an experience that I don't think any of us will be forgetting in a hurry.

We couldn't have hoped for a better last few days - usually cycling into a big city is a stressful affair, but Beijing proved simplicity itself with a wide cycle lane taking us all the way to Tiannanmen. It was only in the final 30km that it became built up - choosing the mountainous route in might have been harder work, but it kept the urban sprawl nicely in check! Nor was it short of interesting encounters. We were joined for a day or so by an American cyclist who was taking a break from a traveling bicycle circus - he rode a 'tall bike', which is basically two bicycle frames welded together, one on top of the other, and had a slightly more unusual luggage arrangement which included a trumpet! For me camping has been a real highlight of this trip, and we were pleased to find a nice campsite for our final night under canvas, complete with a stream to wash in, wood for a campfire and scenic backdrops for taking videos of ourselves (coming soon to a website near you). The last night we opted to stay in a hotel on the outskirts of Beijing, so that we could arrive the next day looking slightly less disheveled than usual. Finding a suitably priced hotel was proving difficult until we stumbled across one which, although not officially a foreigners' hotel, was willing to take us in on the proviso that the owner and her friends were permitted to take us out to dinner that night. An incredible banquet ensued which was almost certainly the best meal we've had in all of China, and that's a pretty stiff competition.

We are now enjoying a bit of R&R in Beijing, sampling the creature comforts of a capital city, before going our separate ways to visit a few other parts of China (by train!) that we didn't quite make it to by bike. We'd like to say a massive thank you to everybody who has supported us for this trip, be it sponsorship, help along the way or just messages of encouragement - knowing that there are people out there following our every move is fantastic, and finding a bunch of new messages on the forum or new donations when we arrive in a town never fails to spur us on!

Once we're back in England we plan to each write a bit more about the trip as a whole, once we've had some time to ponder it! We'll try to get the photos from Beijing up as soon as we can (Dave has currently run off with the camera), and there might even be a follow up to our critically acclaimed training video. Watch this space!