and so to Xian

---

We darted onto the subway with our bags and managed to prise ourselves on the second train that came along, no chance on the first, was rammed solid. after security checks and ID checks we were ready to jump on the bullet train to Xian, armed with several packets of nutrious crisps and a packet of crunchy peas. The bullet train is amazing it sped through the countryside at 300km/ph giving us exciting views of more grey sky and smog. 1000km and five hours later we arrived in Xian north train station, we being intrepid English adventurers decided to go round in circles and up and down a few esculators before reaching the taxi rank, in other words we couldn't find the exit and got lost. using once again our extensive knowledge of mandarin chinese, we corrected the taxi driver on his poor pronounciation of our hotel name. Unfortnately this wasn,t enough to get us there as he took us to the wrong hotel, luckily it was only round the corner from where we were actually going, so we smiled and pertended it was our hotel till he'd gone so as not to hurt his feelings. although we could have got the new metro subway to our hotel alot cheaper and easier and quicker if we had been using a new guide book and not one from 2006 but it wouldn't have made for a more adventurous journey.

The day after a few beer towers in the very cosy han tang hostel (50rmb), we set off for a walk round town. the bell tower is an ace place to watch the traffic going round it. We saw two minor bumps which then led to to absolute mayhem, hours of entertainment. oh and the bell tower is very nice as well. We then had a walk around the top of the city wall, which is very long so we only did a quarter of it, although we could have hired a bicycle or even a tandem but the risk to such an ancient structure was to great. this of course was followed by more beer towers.

The next day we set off for the train station to catch the bus to see the terracotta warriors, we of course arrived there looking completly bewildered and lost but thanks some ancient chinese mystical sixth sense, or the fact that only westerners could rock up at train station looking for a bus meant they must be heading to see the terracotta warriors, we were herded onto the right bus....the big green one with it wrote in big letters down the side...unbelivable is not a good enough word to describe what we saw. 48rmb for a coffee! sack that. And the terracotta warriors are amazing as well.

---