Xi'an - I arrived with a cold and a bit of a fever but the bed and ensuite (amazing bathroom - Shyuan Hostel) saved me from going into a downward spiral... so we got there on Weds, finally got up and wandered around. After what felt like weeks in a land that fashion and cleanliness forgot, it was a relief. I can't believe how much of a city girl I may actually be. I mean, I like the countyside and beautiful scenery, but I hate the smell of piss and damp and being...

We're both feeling a bit broken today - the train journey itself wasn't too bad - we actually had a better sleep then the previous night in Datong - it was the bus to Pingyao that did it though - 1 and a half hours of pain! China's eqivalent of Cannon and Ball were on the bus tv at an insane volume, back to back standup sketches involving lots of shouting and arguing - mixed with the horn happy bus driver blasting his air horn before every slight movement or when...

Hard seat train to Datong - two hour wait, 6 hour trai with old men staring at us, very carmped (see photo). Sleeping was not very easy, the seat was ok for the first hour or so then we realised why they call it 'hard' seat - numb bumbs. Nice to see the man opposite us picking the ticks out of his arm. :-) Met a nice lady and everyone helped us learn our 1 to 10 - lots of laughs and incomprehension on our part - but it was all good humoured. It did stink and ever...

At Datong train station, have just boarded the hard sleeper to Taiyuan - with easily over 1000 other passengers. Em is very excited at the prospect of sleeping in one of these boxes and just had a good experience going to the toilet - which is something that we wouldn't have dared do on our last train journey, a 6 hour hard seat from beijing - I didn't actaully see the toilet itself but on a brief walk to stretch my legs after sitting in the same spot for 4 hour...

Day 2 in Beijing - got bus to Forbidden City, saw lots of Ming and Qing stuff but we started getting a bit bored and it was full of tourists (mostly Chinese). Garden was nice. Maybe we were just hungry and also bored of walking round as everything is on such a big scale. Anyway then we bought enough food for 2 days (in preparation for tomorrow too) at the back street outlet that we went to yesterday and they were pissing themselves (metaphorically, although we di...