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Arriving in Xi'an just after midday on Tuesday, we were met by our tour guide Sasha who has lived in Xi'an for 7 years after coming to the city to study and has a wealth of knowledge on the history of Xi'an.
The city is sprawling but we were staying in a hostel just inside the ancient city walls where building regulations prohibit high rise buildings and keep a charm to the city. The city walls are square with a perimeter of just over 13 km.
The walls are as wide as a road on top and you can cycle or walk around the top of the entire wall. There was three of us cycling so we hired a tandem and a mountain bike and took turns swapping round on the tandem. I found the tandem quite tricky to get to grips with but I was blaming the lads on the back. The cycling took just under a couple of hours once we'd stopped for various photo opportunities and messed about on the tandem for a bit.
In the evening our guide took us to see the bell tower (which sits bang in the centre of the ancient walls), the drum tower and the Muslim quarter. The Muslim quarter contains the great mosque, many different market places and street food. The market streets reminded me of the narrow souks of Marrakech and the street food made me ill, also a bit like Marrakech. It was delicious at the time however.
Following the market we headed to the underground bar at the hostel expecting it to be a small empty bar. Instead it was a huge bustling trendy joint filled with locals. There was a beer pong championship at one end and at the other, people sat with some crazy looking cocktails including one that was literally built out of a variety of glasses placed on top of one another with different drinks in each. These were then set on fire and drunk using straws. Of course we ordered one of those.
The next day we visited the Terracotta warriors just outside of Xi'an. The warriors form part of the tomb of the Chinese emperor who unified China. The tomb was discovered in the 1970s by local farmers. It took thousands of workers 40 years to complete and is thought to be an upside down underground pyramid 100meters deep. Only a small layer of the tomb has so far been excavated including the 6000 terracotta warriors. It was amazing to see the warriors and a once in a lifetime opportunity.
On the way back from the warriors we got caught in the worst rainstorm I have ever seen. Within a matter of minutes roads were 2 inches deep in rainwater and ten seconds out in the rain was enough to drench you. Two of the group used this as an opportunity to have a water fight and when asked by many different sellers if I wanted an umbrella I thought the best response could only be a proud 'no thanks I'm British'. The evening activity was cancelled due to the mega rain which was a shame as we were due to help out at a local homeless soup kitchen.
We caught the bus at 0650 this morning to travel to Shaolin for one evening. The journey takes 7hours but we are due to arrive at around 1500 after a couple of delays.
Dodgy belly count - 1
Beard status - probably needs a trim
Cheers.
Max.
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