Nanjing and Xi'an, China

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One of the most amazing things about China is the size and population of it's cities. I expected the cities of Beijing and Shanghai to be massive but when our guide, David, told us on the train to Nanjing that we were going to a smaller town a few hours from Shanghai by train, in my mind I was expecting something tiny in comparison to Shanghai but in fact Nanjing itself has a population of over 5 million people and is a huge city in its own right and this is true all over China, there are just so many people its unbelievable.

The city of Nanjing has a long historical heritage, having twice been the nation's capital, one of which was during the famous Ming dynasty. We spent only one day there which was spent at Zhongshan, a mountainside forested area containing a cluster of historical sites. We visited Dr. Sun Yat-Sen's Mausoleum, the Liggu Temple and Pagoda, and Xiaoling's Tomb of the Ming Dynasty.

After a full day of sight-seeing we boarded an overnight train to Xi'an. Our guide wanted us to experience all types of transport whilst in China so for the first of two overnight train journey's we did in the tour, we did the first one in the hard-sleeper class. This consisted of an open plan carriage of about 100 people sleeping on narrow beds stacked 3 high. It was really chaotic boarding the train with all of our luggage. In the evening we all sampled various varieties of the very popluar instant noodles. I had done a few of these sorts of journeys by now so felt a little used to the discomfort and noise, but the chinese trains are slightly worse as you can smoke on the trains so it is pot luck who is in your compartment. And I can't go on any further without mention to the spitting that goes on in China. Both men and women spit very loudly and very often to clear their throat and it is the most disgusting sound. Its hard to avoid, even on the trains.

Xi'an is a lovely city with lots to do and see. It felt like a large town rather than a city but it still had a population of almost 7 million. It is the city which saw the rise and fall of many dynasties and was where the silk road was started. An islamic element throughout the city with many mosques and muslim markets. We spent our first day there looking around The Great Mosque of Xi'an and the nearby market, and then went to the city's museum which houses a collection of 400,000 pieces consisting of bronze works, historical relics, and ceramics and is considered one of the best museums in China.

Whilst in Xi'an we had the experience of attending a 'dumpling banquet'. This consisted of 16 courses of different flavoured dumplings and for those who were still hungry, we could have soup to finish it all off. It was a lot of fun and by this point we were all getting pretty good with the chopsticks.

We had the opportunity in Xi'an to see another traditional performance which was an evening of Tang Dynasty music and dance performed at the Xi'an Opera House. The costumes were really colourful and inticately designed and the show was beautifully performed.

Xi'an is one of the few cities remaining in China where the old city walls are still visable. The stone walls are 12 meters high and form a rectangle around the old part of the city with a circumference of 14km. The walls are 12 meters wide at the top and you can walk on top of the walls around the city. The group hired bikes and rode the 14kms around the city. The views were amazing around the city and we did the ride late in the day as the sun was starting to come down which made the scenery even more picturesque.

On our final day in Xi'an we visited the Army of Terracotta Warriors, one of China's most popular attractions. Discovered by accident in 1974 this sight is an underground vault containing 8000 life size terracotta warriors and their horses in battle formation. The scale of the room that the warriors are in is huge. You can walk around the parimeter of the room and it is very impressive to see the individual detail of each warrior as no two warriors are the same. This was definietly another of the highlights of China.

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