Xi'an

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Our main reason for stopping in Xi'an was to see the famous Terrecotta Army. For anyone that has never heard of these they are life size statues of an army that were built in something like 200BC for an Emperor to guard him in the afterlife. There were something like 8,000 statues built by thousands of men who were all killed after the statues were built so the location of the tomb would never be discovered....so the legend goes! We planned on only staying 2 nights in Xi'an but it turned out to be a bit of a vortex that we didnt leave for nearly a week! Was a great hostel with a really great bar. We met loads of people and ended up going out everynight so didnt do too much else. The Chinese barmen (Lion Fox Bambi Peach & Orange!) brought us to the morrellis of Xi'an after they closed up which was basically a building site with plastic chairs & tables and meals on wheels! The food tasted really great but when we went to look for it the next day....it was gone....only appeared late at night!! we aso ended up in a chinese nightclub which was quite an experience, we got frisked on the way in by a 'bouncer' who looked more like an army man with a helmet on...made it into the club and it was full of the 'bouncers' and people on stages dancing like crazy...wasnt a patch on rockfords but we didnt stop laughing the whole night. At one stage when we plucked up the courage to dance we were surrounded by a circle of chinese people dancing around us! 20 white people all together in a chinese niteclub obviously isnt too common! Xi'an is the oldest city in China and still has a wall surrounding the city. We cycled the parameter of the wall one of the days which was good. Dee bought a kite and had a very unsucessful lift off...jeers from the little kids with their kites flying high were the cause of the kite never getting lift-off again.....

Kellie, Dee & Cillian xxx

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