In Xi'an...

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So! In Xi'an. Home of the famous terracotta army and a large muslim community.

Before that though. Yesterday we did wake early at 4am to go to Tian'anmen square to watch the flag raising ceremony. However the square was deserted and after about half an hour we gave up and headed back to the hotel for a few hours. Went back to the Market for breakdast. Bought bread, water and some deep fried testicle looking things. Don't know what they were, probably rather not to find out either. Then we caught the metro back to Tian'anmen square where Dragon told us a little about the history and politics before heading through Tian'anmen gate into the Forbidden City, where we were let loose for the rest of the day. AFter two hours of wandering through the streets and marvelling at the architecture Rob and i headed to the Birds Nest.

It's built at the end of a long and grand avenue. So as you approach it grows and grows. It a magnificent building as we stood around for a while gawping at it. We promised ourselves that we would take one of the over persuasive Rickshaw drivers up on the offer of a ride and would catch the nearest one back to the metro station. For the first time there were none of the bastards around. When you actaully want them they aren;t there.

WE headed back to Tian'anmen square to watch the flag lowering whcih was impressive. The troops marched from Tian'anmen gate, across the road and formed a guard while the flag was lowered, then they escorted it back into the Forbidden City.

That night we had a bed on a sleeper train to Xi'an. There are six to a compartment, adn thankfully we were with those in our travel group and Dragon, but there is no door to shut. At 10.30 the lights go out and you can read if you wish. I chose to sleep as i still haven't yet caught up properly and avoided sleeping all day to ensure i slept through. It was no use. After about 2am my sleep was very interupted and light. And my dreams were more hallucinations. At 6am i was rudely startled in my semi slumber state by the light being turned on and the morning music playing. This happens on all sleeper trains in china, but nonetheless it was an absolute bloody pain. I was just starting to drop off again too, so i pulled a jumper over my face and achieved the same pointless light doze until 8.15 leaving me two mins to rush ready as the train pulled in.

We are staying in downtown Xi'an but already we are liking it better than Beijing. Its an ancient walled city. There seems to be more life in this part of town. Our rooms looks over the tiny backstreets that tourists aren't supposed to see. The smeel of street food drifts our way, so we may have to taste it later. After a short orientation tour we headed to a local bakers to buy our "daily bread" and the supermarket, which we assumed would be a local shop but to our disappointment and overwhelming joy it was a wal-mart owned shop meaning that all ammenities we could wish for were actually available. For 74.40 RMD (chinese yuan) we bought enough food, and a few luxury beers and biscuits, for the two of us, for two days. 74.40 yuan equates to about 7 and a half pounds!!!!

We're going to wander to the muslim area later for a nose but its bitterly cold so after that we will probably head back to the hotel and have our dinner before hitting the sack.

Peace out.

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