We left our hostel for the airport in Beijing to catch our afternnon flight; the aim was to take the bus to the airport just as we had done on the way in from the airport. However the woman at the hostel failed to let us know that the bus departs from a different place to where it drops off it s passengers coming from the airport. After much huffing and puffing, lagging our heavy bags around for half an hour and getting teed off with people trying to extort us for the location of the bus terminal, we got a taxi. MUCH easier.

The flight was smooth, took off 10 minutes early and landed 15 minutes early and had more leg room than our long haul flight from Frankfurt. We took the bus from the aiport into Xi'an (about one hour). We decided to get a taxi to the hostel but the cabby t\attempoted to charge us three times the going rate so we declined his offer. This is a common theme in China. One must always agree the fair roughly before getting in; and if the driver asks if you have been in China long, the answer is always an emphatic yes to prevent him giving you the run around and charging you more. The best iption is to find a taxi with a meter; the fall is 10 yuan (80ish pence) which gets you 3km exactly, then the meter kicks in. Anyway- in between the cabby trying to rip us off and we deciding to walk we managed to lose the piece of paper with the hostels address on. No matter; as I had the number of the hostel on my phone and after much confusion due to translation problems and the fact you could barely hear the woman at the end of the phone led us taking about 45 minutes to find the hostel.

We were relieved and pleasantly surprised when we go to the Xiang Zi Men hostel. We have a four man dorm to ourselves, the hostel has a good bar, lounge area and mini restaurant. It is centrally located and is picturesque, buit in traditional chinese style and made up of three or so buildings connected together by 5 metre outside walkways. Beers cost 40p each for a 600ml bottle, there is free pool and internet as well, the food is ok and not overpriced. When we artrived we had the home comfort of the Premiership a wide drop down screen being played onto by a projector and so we watched Man U lose to City and Chelsea draw to Liverpool. This cheered me up no end.

The next day we tried to buy our tain ticket to Hong Kong. But after much deliberation and two trips by public bus to the train station and asking reception to ring up for us we discovered that there were no tickets to Shenzen or Guangzhou (terminals in China next to Hong Kong) for five days. So we ended up having to book a 26 hour sleeper bus which was relatively expensive compared to the train but is in fact quicker as the bus is more direct. We chilled for the rest of the day playing pool and eating at the hostel as it was so cold. In the evening we decided to wind down with a fair bit of drinking; it was in order after our ealier debacle.

Day two in Xian was of the relaxed variety as we wanted a rest from the quite intense sightseeing that we had done so far. We got chatting to a couple of English fellas who were teachers in the NE of China who told us they manged to get a hard sleeper tain ticket for that evening to Guangzhou for less than half the price; a little irritating! Apparently where they teach one can live off a tenner a week which sounds pretyy good, although they obviously get paid a tupance accordingly. So if you want cheap living that is the place to go!

The day after we got up early to see the Terracotta Warriors. They are about an hour out of town and easily reached by bus from the train station. Although bloody cold by the mountains outside Xi'an; they were an amazing sight. We viewed the 'pits' in reverse (smallest to largest). The biggest pit (pit number one) is about 60 metres wide and 220 metres long. They have only excavated less than half the site so far and have uncovered 1826 warriors so far. It all the pits scientists estimate that the warriors total somewhere near 6000! We tagged along with a couple of tour guides to get some info on the warriors which was extremely interesting. I recomend you all to read about them if you have a spare minute or two; fascinating stuff. No two faces on the stattues are the same, and all the bronze weapons they were originally holding are long gone due to a fire. The warriors were painted at the time they were constructed and subsequently buried but few bare any sign of this now. I won't bore you with any moe info. We moved onto the musuem of warriors and weapons which gave more detail about their construction, layout and purpose etc. before heading back to Xi'an for a spot of lunch. On the way to exit the site we were forced to alk through a couple hundred metres of paved way lined witth people trying to sell souvenir tat, we walked through a complex of empty buildings, restaurants and cafes which perhaps may be full during the summer? The Chinese did their best again to stick in as many gift shops as humanly posssible; with lots of Terracotta Warrior 'museums' whcih are essentially shops.

We haven't quite explored Xi'an as we did Shangai and Beijing. But I can tell you it is different to them. Xi'an is an ancient city where historians reckon that 25 Chinese Emperors originated from. The ancient city wall still remains and runs in a square in the centre of the city (the chinese do love building a good wall); Xi'an was famed for being the beginning and end of the Silk Road. There are far fewer high rise blocks of apartments and offices though there are some dotted around. It comes accross as much less commercial than Beijing and certainly Shanghai. Xi'an seems to have adapted to grwoing urban populations in China without surcoming to the pressure of going hell for leather construction wise. This may be due to the lack of money comparatively with Beijing and Shanghai. On the way out to and return from the Terracotta warriors we got a glimpse of the real China I suspect. On the roadsides lay mountains of rubble, the quality of hosuing was poor, there seemed to be high level unemployment based on the number of people hanging around doing nothing. It wasas though the China economic boom had yet to reach this more rural community, plenty was abandoned or half built. There is still widespread poverty in China; not jsut the rural parts but in the cities too.

We are getting ready to go to Hong Kong at the moment and planning which snacks to buy for our bus journey whcih we hope wont be too bad and we wont be ill whilst on as we have both felt slightly unwell for short periods over the last couple of days. A supply of our own toilet paper will be necessary I think; the Chinese aren't big on giving the most very basic hygiene requiremnt item complementary.

Sorry no photos still yet but we can't download the necessary drive. We got some great ones of the Warriors. Perhaps we will have better luck in HK. Otherwise we will explore other avenues and keep you all updated.