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Hello again welcome back!

26th - 30th July

We headed back to Guangzhou in the aid of trying our luck once more to get to Xian.

The train back to Xian went fine, because the train was on an Island it gets shunted onto a boat then taken across the sea, then shunted back onto main land china.

We arrived in Guangzhou and managed to get tickets to Xian however we would have stay in Guangzhou for 4 days rather then two.

It was at this point that we said goodbye to Farrer as he got on a plane back to Thailand.

Guangzhou is one of the biggest cities in China and part of the city is an island called Shamian. This was once owned by the British and the French back in the early 1800's. They couldn't decide who should have what so they decided to split the island in half, so half of the island has British architecture and the other half has French architecture, which makes for an interesting wonder.

With British post-boxes, architecture and history with the British and the French Guangzhou feels like it a Chinese city trying to be like Hong Kong.

From the photos you will see a haze over the skyline, this is not a humid day, this is just pollution.

We wondered round the more interesting streets of Guangzhou rather then its high rises. We came across pet street, which could have been food street as well but for our mental state it was pet street. Lots of animals hanging around in the hot weather sat in cages with people coming and going buying them.

Also because Guangzhou is a port city you can wonder around and find lots of fish markets and people drying various parts of animals on the streets, mainly for medicines.

30th July Off to Xian!

Today we finally got our train to Xian, it took 26 hours on a hard sleeper. Basically bunk bends on a train. You try and do a lot of sleeping on these trains because the more you sleep the less time you have to move about a cramped train. Luckily though we managed to get the tiny seats that sit on the isle of the train and we talked and played cards. Two Chinese children were fascinated with us, as are all Chinese children and tried to talk to us and we talked back. One word I recognised was 'Timberdong' which means I don't understand. Although I couldn't talk to one little lad, we shared various techniques of shufferling cards.

I have used 'Timberdong' many times in the aid to subdue a torrent of Chinese from a person who thinks you know Chinese, where in fact all I said was Ni how (hello).

They find this extremely funny when you say 'timberdong' because you are telling them that you don't understand their language in their language.

31st July We arrive in Xian

We arrived in Xian at about 17:00 and just went straight to the hostel.

I've been told that you should only spend a couple of days in Xian, its grubby and there's nothing to do but we all thought that Xian was quite good. A more modern city then I had anticipated Xian is full of history. Apart from the terracotta army, it has been the capital and has one of the oldest Stone Pagodas in China at a grand old age of AD 657 and the remains of a 6000 year old village.

We decided to pay for a 4 bed room in our hostel even though there were only 3 of us to have some space and privacy. Disturbingly the shower and toilet were situated in the same room as the beds and encased in a frosted glass box so you could basically see people going to the toilet and taking a shower. Which was hilarious and disturbing at the same time. If you look at the pictures for Xian you can see just how see-through the toilet area really was….. very strange.

1st August

Today we saw the Drum and Bell Towers both as stated before where to ring/drum in the morning and night so the workers in the field knew when to come in.

Part of the city has a very long history of Muslim presence so we went and wondered around the muslim quarter which was near our hostel. Muslim Chinese are known for there amazing food so we ate some street food and ate at a restaurant. My street food consisted of two pancakes with a meat filling, very nice and I think I made the owners day by asking for it in Chinese. Also around the Muslim quarter sits a massive market full of souvenirs, jewellery, bags and general nick nacks. Claire would have loved it. It is here that I should mention I've become quite the haggler, my technique is to smile a lot say please a lot and walk away. It's got me some right bargains.

However sometimes you really don't want to haggle and wish they would just have prices on them but if your in the mood it can be quite fun.

It was luck that our trip to Xian coincided with the Graham and his family. So we met up with Grahams mum, dad and younger brother for drinks and chats at the hostel.

2nd August Terracotta Warriors

Today was our trip to see the Terracotta Warriors and the Banpo village.

First stop on our pre paid tour including tour guide was the 6000 year old Neolithic Village of Banpo. It was really interesting to see the remains of people and a village that excited 6000 years ago.

Next stop Warrior time!

Part of the tour and part of every pre paid tour in china consists of a shop for you to buys buy souvenirs and Jade (I hate Jade). So we did that then entered the first pit that was discovered in 1974 by several local farmers. The vastness and detail of the life-size warriors is amazing and as you step into the first viewing area you try and imagine how they must have looked when they were first made. The army is indeed set out like an army would be in battle with the infantry at front with flanking cavalry and various generals. None of the original colour remains but I like the stone colour that the warriors possess. The bodies of the army are generally from one mould but the heads are completely unique, carved by only a few men.

There are three pits so far and even though there are thousands of warriors uncovered there are still thousands yet to be unearthed.

It was a great day and defiantly worth a visit.

3rd August

We went to see the stone pagoda today which is one of the oldest in china. You can go up it and take pictures and wonder around its gardens. Just outside of the pagoda there are a set of water fountains which light up at night so we went to the light display with 1000s of other people. It was very entertaining especially seeing kids running about having a fantastic time in the water as well as seeing Cooper and Phil trying to resist the temptation and then joining them.

4th August - Goodbye Xian

We got the train back to Guangzhou in the afternoon after looking again around the massive market in the Muslim quarter. The journey from the hostel to the train station in Xian was a nightmare. (I like China, I just don't like travelling around it).

The train station was only about 10 minutes away by car so with our bags we decided to get a taxi, except no taxi's would take us as it was too short a journey (DO YOUR BLOODY JOB!!!) so we ran back to the hostel to beg them to take us as time was ticking and we might miss our train. The staff couldn't drive us but helped us get another means of transport…. A moped taxi.

One Chinese guy, me and two massive bags bombing down a busy road to the train station on a moped is the vision I want to plant in your mind. Anyway we got to the train station with 15 mins to spare… barged our way through the Chinese 'que' to get in the train station and then asked for the direction to our train. First we were directed to Soft seat rather then soft sleeper, then we were directed to a platform with locked gates. But thankfully a staff member came and opened it and we got on our train and on our soft sleeper … it was an ordeal but a story to tell.

Anyway our train back to Guangzhou was on a soft sleeper so it was more comfortable and we had more room. However the ride took longer then we had hoped reaching a massive 28 hours! We arrived at 21:00 and we thought we had missed the last bus to Dongguan but luckily we got it just in time with 10 minutes to spare.

We arrived in Dongguan without a hitch and scoffed down a massive takeaway pizza!

Well that's it for now, today is the start of the Beijing Olympics and we anticipate that all of China will explode with excitement. The plan for the next few days is to catch up on internet stuff, post some stuff back home, plan our route to Loas and generally have a good time.

By for now.