The vibrant city of Xi'an and the Terracotta Army

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Arrival at the airport all went fine went out side to get the recommended shuttle bus stood in the queue for 20 minutes bus arrives and told I should have a ticket good start ran back inside got the ticket and came back luckily enough the lady controlling the buses had saved me a seat on the coach lifesaver I'm exhausted climbed a mountain today ya know 😊 after an hour on the bus we were all dropped of outside a hotel were a swarm of men decided to approach me talking Chinese well this is uncomfortable! I translated I have no idea what you want leave me alone please. I seen a taxi pull up showed him the address to wish he said 400 I told him swiftly to get lost ended up agreeing a price with one of the random men hoping he's not a serial killer and gets in the car a few phone calls later I finally arrive at the hostel to be on the 5th floor I could cry I've walked so many stairs today but the bed is comfortable so I'm happy. I had a nice long lie in today before getting up taking a nice long HOT shower not in a toilet bowl.

I've been for a little walk around town and it is completely manic walking down long alleyways with opens and strange little taxi cars beeping away on their horns even if nothing is in the way. Lots of cool little food stalls which I will be trying in the next few days and sadly quite a few butchers with lots of pigs carcass hanging up outside they do like it fresh out here at least it's better that the frogs turtles and chickens I've seen in cages over the last few days still alive but have given up can't even be bothered to move in their little waiting bowls. Coming from a town with no malls to one where there is one on literally every corner is a little bit of a shock to the system I found a Claris shop made up only to find out they don't sell the make up out here only the skin care products sad face! Guess I'll have to try a different make up while I'm here not the end of the world I guess but I can buy that back in my city no need to get it here. So now I'm sat back in the hostel with a nice cold beer writing to all of you before cat arrives later tonight to start the madness of the next few days the Terracotta Army is the plan for tomorrow lets see how that pans out but I think these few days should be a little more chilled out before heading back home for work might even get my nails done.

After spending a lovely day visiting the terracotta army i can say that it is definitely worth it. Pretty amazing to think how detailed the stone figures are that they where made and buried thousands of years ago and here it is standing in front me quite cool. We walked around all three sights some of which literally just look like huge holes in the ground to show where they came from, but the main pit where the majority of them where was awesome. Being buried with such a vast army really makes you wonder what he was so scared of in the after life to think he needed so many warriors to protect him? My dad had asked me to look out for a particular warrior called Fred and to tell him the next round was his, i passed the message on but i think he's going to be waiting a while for his drink as Fred was the warrior all wrapped in cling film 😊.

We were going to hit the town that night see what the nightlife was lie but we ended up having a few drinks in the hostel and not moving much further than that it was about 9pm by the time we got there so was getting on a bit, it is however a good excuse to need to go back. Kat left not long after we woke the next day to head off to the airport so i was once a again tottering around on my own, i decided to make use of the day and go and see what the wall was about that goes around the city i got to the south city gate to be drawn in by a speaker talking about a show so i asked a few questions and bought what i thought to be a rather over priced ticket but hey my brother gave me the thumbs up that it was worth it and reminded me that i'm only here once so lets do it.

After that i rented a bicycle and rode the best part around the 14km wall i came off the second to last exit only because it was closer to the hostel and not because my backside was killing me from riding over cobbles for and hour and a half honestly! I definitely earned any food that i ate for the rest of the day. Although I'm not the most active of people and haven't ridden a bike properly for many years it was rather nice to breeze round with the wind my hair felt like quite an achievement.

Rushing back to the hostel i was showered and changed and two beers later on my way back to the south gate. I jumped a little crazy tuk tuk which took me near the bell tower not too far to walk from here i thought i should make it on time, but i cant just cross the road i have to use the underpass. So down i go and its like David Bowies labyrinth ill be damned if i knew which way to so i checked the map and headed for the exit that seemed appropriate i'm now seriously running out of time so i start power walking down the street and get about 10 minutes down before i realise i don't recognise anything and i should at least see the gate in the distance by now but no...... so out comes the phone check the map I've only gone and crossed the road horizontally instead of vertically and walked 10 mins down the road on the side i was on to begin with dam it. Tuk tuk number 2 comes to the rescue and takes me straight to the south gate entrance and considering i was a little late i still had to join a queue in typical Chinese fashion just glad i made it!

The show was absolutely amazing and worth every penny though it was fairly short it was in both english and Chinese so i knew what was owing on for a change and the costumes and dancing were wonderful. Really made me feel as though i was watching back in the time of each of the dynasties that they were performing. They let us go back up on the wall after the show so that we could take some photographs overlooking all of the beautifully lit up buildings and from my perch i spotted i bar playing music below so went to explore. Typical that i would find bar street on my own and I'm already getting strange looks for sitting here alone so i just had two beers had a chat with a few people over the phone and them slowly made my way to the hostel.

Needing a good night sleep before travelling obviously meant that it was time for the mosquitoes to attack me i got eaten alive and my wrist blew up twice the size lovely.... i spent my last day pottering around enjoying the buzz of the alleyways and buying a few gifts before heading off to the airport to go home to Yantai. Really is a shock to the system getting back to such a quiet town after such a crazy holiday... just going to have to plan my next adventure now but it might be a little while before i can get time off school now.

Well you have plenty to read now I've finally got around to uploading about 6 blogs sorry they took so long but it may be a while until the next one. Thanks for reading xx

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