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Published: July 29th 2013
Day 8. - Arriving in Xian and cycling to the Ming Dynasty Walls
The overnight train was a diddle this time. I think we are all getting used to it! At 10pm the lights went out, we all seemed to go straight over! I woke up at 6.40 am. I think my stomach seems to have settled now. I daren't eat anything substantial though! I had 3 dry garibaldi type breakfast biscuits, to be on the safe side, with a cup of green tea! Lets see what today brings!
Oooohhhh, Di, and anyone else who watches Idiot Abroad, when we were out on bikes in Yangshuo, we rode passed the tourist attraction where they have a village of dwarfs, kind of living there and doing entertainment. I think it was called I Pocket sized Kingdom or something! Just thought you would like to know that! Hmm, just got up again! I went back to sleep at about 7.15.
It is now 9am. We must be nearly there. Well that wasn't so bad, except the horrific couple of visits to the toilet!!! But now my stomach feels lots better! We were met by 2 new guides, Monica
and Sacha. The next hostel, Shu Yuan, is a very traditional Chinese building. It's really quite big, and seems a decent place. We were able to get showered and sorted before going to the Ming City Wall which was very much appreciated!
We all went up the wall, some cycled, some walked. It is 13.7km round trip. Laura and I cycled together as we were the only two who wanted to go to volunteer at the soup kitchen. We enjoyed the trip round. The buildings inside the walls are all low level, yet outside the walks are high-rise buildings. This is because the government do not allow high rise buildings, which is a good thing I think. The ride took us just over an hour. It was good, but my backside ached!
We went straight off to the soup kitchen. It is ran by a man called Paul who is from Burnley! We both really enjoyed it. It was a bit of an eye opener! We served porridge or soup with six dumplings per person, then went round with seconds. There were a lot of people waiting to be fed! They were all very grateful for the soup
kitchen service. We were really pleased we had gone.
We have an early start tomorrow x
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Bill Fuller
non-member comment
Village Life
Did you feel at home there?