sun: got into xi'an at 6:30am. greeted by a huge city wall. got a pick up at the trainstation to the hostel. sorted washing out and got ready then went to see the terracotta warriors. bus queue was huge, took 2 hours to get there (only supposed to take 1) as i think i left at the worst time. when i got there i took a tour guide as many people who went were disappointed with it as there wasnt much to see there and info wasnt great apparently. we walked around for 2 1/2 hours. much more interesting with a guide, othewise i think i to would have been disappointed. theres three sites. site 1 is the biggest and clearest. site 2 is the second but not much there, and site 3 is very small and mainly contains just fragments of broken terracotta. best to do them in reverse order, leaving best till last. in the night went to bar st and back to hostel.
mon: up early to get to huashan. didnt know how to get there. asked hostel, they told me to get on a particular bus at the train station. wen i got there there this women took me running across a few streets to catch a bus. cost 80y return!! seemed to be kosha though. got to the bus at 8:15 after running but bus didnt leave till 9! so i i was dripping with sweat for nothing. also guy i met last night in hostel got on. journey was 3 hours long. park entrance was 100y and bus up to cable car (which you have to take) return was 40y. at this point i was struggling to see if this was going to be worth the trip and cost of it all. walked up the soldiers trail. what a hike, millions of steps and it was hot. i struggled. steps were vertical in places and had these chains to hold onto (took photos of them but it just doesnt do it justice). some places were just little steps cut into stone and these chains to hold onto.. looks like theyve replaced the wooden floors with concrete balconies. got to top of trail in 1hr 15mins. then walked along the dragons ridge which was literally along the top of this mountain ridge up to a hotel. walked a little further towards yuan peak. then turned back cos running out of time and walked to the north peak. then walked back down the soldiers trail. only had a couple of people ask me for photos today. maybe now ive hit 27 i do actually look older and less attractive!
we were told that the bus would leave at 5:30 but when we got down these two guys said they were told it left at 7! so basically lost an hour. but to be honest i was b*****ed. it was an ecellent days hiking and a really different experience to normal hiking. the only downside was that the toilets stank, and you could smell them about 50m away, which meant you had to walk faster just to pass them without throwing up.
in the night played drinking games in the hostel with scottish and english people.
need to get some photos of xi'an off the net as i didnt take that many and they werent that good.
tues: day of travelling. had a quick walk before though to see the bell tower then caught train at 13:00. 16hr journey, bottom bunk so was ok. train ride through green hills to chengdu was really pretty, but alot of tunnels.