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Published: October 22nd 2012
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The flight from Hong Kong went smoothly and we took the airport shuttle bus into Xi'an city centre. We then attempted to walk the 1km (that Google maps predicted) to our hostel, The Warriors Int. Backpackers, with our backpacks. Unfortunately Google maps kindly plotted our hostel in the entirely wrong place which left us wandering the streets of Xi'an with out enormous backpacks, lost, in the dark. After 45 minutes we decided to bite the bullet and flag down a taxi but the driver refused our fare signalling it was close enough to walk. After an hour looking for it we finally made it to the hostel! There were imitation terracotta warriors and a pond of fish in reception! We went to relax in the hostel bar and were serenaded by a local Chinese man singing with his acoustic guitar. As we were the only people in the bar we duly applauded each song and were met with his cool Chinese "thank you" (xie xie - pronounced che che).
We headed to the city wall (9 miles in total) which encapsulated the Xi'an city. Once up on the wall we discovered the best way to see the entire
wall, to avoid the very long walk, was on bicycle. We hired bikes for 100 minutes and leisurely cycled around the walls stopping to take photos of the beautiful towers and scenery. Famished from our cycle we went back to the hostel for dinner and enjoyed some local beers before listening again to the local Chinese man sing - thankfully there were a few more people in the bar tonight.
We were up early the following day and squeezed onto the local bus to Xi'an train station. It was from here we were getting another local bus to the site of the terracotta warriors. Whilst waiting for the bus a local road-washing-truck careered past spraying water everywhere whilst playing the jingle bells tune, completely random. The bus to the warriors took just over an hour and once there we decided to pay the extra 30 yuan (£3) to have a Chinese guide, Cindy, with us rather than using the translation headsets. Having Cindy with us was brilliant, she answered our questions and pushed us right to the front of the railings to get the best photos whilst explaining the history of the warriors. We looked
at all three sites which housed the warriors and I enjoyed a look around the 'warrior hospital' which housed all the broken ones. Mum bought the souvenir book and we took it to be signed by the local farmer who discovered the warriors. We watched the 5D film which reenacted the history of the Chang dynasty and the overhaul of the tomb being set on fire and the warriors being destroyed. The warriors come in three varieties: archers, cavalry and infantry. They were an absolutely incredible sight and we thoroughly enjoyed our tour. We chose not to go to the tomb, a short distance away by golf buggy, as they have chosen not to open the actual tomb, so it seemed a little pointless to go and look at a mound of grass.
We ate a lovely lunch in a restaurant outside the warriors: chicken noodle soup, pork bun, pork fried rice and I enjoyed a tomato noodle dish. We took the local bus back to Xi'an which due to the traffic took over an hour and a half, but as it was only 7 yuan (70p) each way, it was an absolute bargain. We
looked around to find somewhere to eat, with something vegetarian on the menu (which wasn't fast food), but we really struggled so ended up getting dinner in Walmart to eat back in the hostel. After a bit of research it appears this is a common problem, especially inside the city wall. We searched on the Internet and found a few vegetarian restaurants outside the city walls which we would look for the next day.
The following morning we packed up our bags and set off on the local bus, outside the city walls, to visit the wild goose pagodas. The weather was not very good and we had the first drops of rain since being in China. The pagodas were not as beautiful as those we saw in Guilin or those that we anticipated seeing in Beijing. We decided not to pay the entrance fee, and got a sneaky picture from the gate before heading to one of the nearby vegetarian restaurants for lunch. Unfortunately despite the iPad-written Chinese address, the map and asking locals, we couldn't locate any of them. We decided to stop for lunch in the only nearby restaurant that was open, First Noodle Under The Sun. Despite the overly touristy name, some difficulty in our understanding the staff explaining that there was a 30 minute wait for Dan's dumplings, we had a lovely meal. Afterwards we had a walk round a local Chinese supermarket, bought some interesting looking cakes from a street vendor and got the bus back to the hostel to pick up our bags. We then forced our way onto the local bus to the train station for our overnight train to Beijing (Mum's first overnight train experience!).
After a long cramped wait at the train station we finally boarded our soft-sleeper carriage for the 11 hour journey. We shared our carriage with a local Chinese man but unfortunately he didn't speak any English so we couldn't really communicate with him very well. The journey was a lot tougher than the previous one as we were in the last carriage of the train which meant we felt every lump and bump of the track. My bed was located right next to the water tank and the toilet so I spent the whole night waking up every time someone flushed it!
Kayleigh
Xx
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anonymous
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mumsy here
so enjoying your updates , but cant wait to see you soon xxxx