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Published: June 23rd 2006
Spent Monday night on a cramped and very long overnight train with six of us all crammed into a little bunk compartment with one squat loo that you couldn't avoid and was seriously disgusting....needless to say arrived in xian very tired and dirty but it was all in all a very funny evening. Xian itself is a bustling, fun city and on arriving Hywel and I had the idea of cycling of along the city walls stretching 13.7km in total with no sun cream on in the heat of midday! Burnt and sweaty we headed for the muslim quarter to the smells of lamb kebabs and sewers and the many markets and street stalls. In the midst of all this we found a beautiful mosque to dilute the madness! We spent the evening at the Wild Goose Pagoda where (and this could only happen in China) the whole square was lit up with lights and the fountains and water jets through the square. The music started and everyone ran through the water fully clothed screaming and giggling....that happens every night at 8pm!
Tuesday morning we saw the eighth wonder of the world (the second wonder in a week!), the Terracotta
Warriors which were incredible. Still in the original pits where they were found only thirty two years ago and still a live archeological site with so much more work to do. On our way home we visited the Xian Huilin school for mentally disabled children who did a musical show for us after we had lunch with them there. It was really humbling and good to see that Intrepid Travel support such a worthwhile scheme.
Another overnighter that nearly killed Charlotte but of course Hywel found it strangely soothing and slept the whole way through! Swine! This time we arrived 17 hours later in Suzhou - apparently the Venice of the East......While it wasn't quite Venice it has some beautiful gardens and an old canal quarter where Hywel and I had a sneaky G and T and a beer hiding from a huge tropical storm. Our walk home was fantastic though as we got lost in a very warm and wet Suzhou in the backstreets with children walking home from school and live frogs and fish on the roadside about to be cooked for someone's dinner. Last night we visited another garden where we saw some traditional Chinese performances
and then on to a hilarious Chinese bar packed with Chinese and then us....they didn't know what to make of us especially Henning, our "friendly" Danish member!
Now in Shanghai for the next four days - so excited to see Tara. Will be in touch soon....
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shanghai-sheila's
Go to M on the Bund for sunset on the terrace!