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We arrived into Xian after a grueling 12 hour train ride from Beijing, We had booked soft sleeper train tickets which basically meant that we had the best seats on the train. We had met a couple of lads from Bolton. Charles and Jon! Who would imagine that the only westerners would be clumped in a compartment together for 12 hours!
On the train we had a couple of beers and played some cards and before we knew it we were arriving into Xian. It was awful weather and it was 6 in the morning! Not the greatest start to our little adventure
The city is a lot like St Malo but more intense and a load more Ting Tongs! We had heard some bad reports but we were willing to judge for ourselves. We set out to explore the city after a couple of hours of much needed sleep!
There is a tourist attraction in the middle of the walled city that is basically a massive drum. And bell tower (2 seperate towers). The bell was absolutely huge! I mean this thing was 6.5 tonnes of pure iron! The drum tower wasn't as impressive as it was just a load of smaller drums! It was raining and we couldn't really be bothered to walk around so we went back to the hostel
The hostel was really nice! It was called the Shuyan and was located just inide the East wall! We had some sweet and sour pork (now officially my favorite food) and hit the beers china style! It was a really good night!
Next day Ian and I set off to a Panda sanctuary, and guess what, it was raining again! The weather was atrocious! There was some local flooding around the area but nothing really to worry about! The Pandas were quite cool. The whole zoo was basically an area where they would tend to endangered species that couldn't fend for themselves in the mountains! The Pandas were in a cage which was ok, it was quite spacious, but there were animals that were locked in ridiculously small cages.
The following day we had planned to go to the Terracotta warriors! Charles and Jon had gone on the tour a day earlier and had said that it was rubbish. We got instructions of how to get there from the hostel staff who were very helpful, unfortunately we managed to screw up! We had got on the correct bus but it had been going in the wrong direction. We didn't realise until about 40 minutes after we got on! Oh well tomorrow
The next day was our last day in Xian, we were officially tagging along with the Bolton lads and it was an incredible laugh, we all bonded really well! Me and Ian offered to go and buy tickets for out next destination, SHANGHAI! We went to the station and then headed off on the correct bus this time to the Terracotta Warriors! We arrived there with not a lot of time to spare as we had to get back, pack and then get to the station! We were literally running around the place. Snapping, taking pictures as we ran! The warriors were a bit of a let down to be honest as they were pretty over rated. The only incredible part about them is that they were discovered by accident!
Next stop SHANGHAI!!
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