China Part 1: ＥＮＴＥＲ ＴＨＥ ＤＲＡＧＯＮ

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Ni Hao!!!匟ello!!..Howdy!!!!?China then?

(13/10/09) Still in Hong Kong, I hoped to get up early to run a few errands including buying some postcards to accompany the 4 airmail stamps I purchased yesterday. Well it turns out that postcards are not sold in Kowloon in HK, or not within a 2 mile radius of my hotel anyhow, so if you don抰 have a postcard I憁 sorry... At half one we started the first mode of transport for our journey into China. First up we jumped into a cab to an MTR station in now sunny HK - excitement was high. This was 搑eal?travelling again after easy western ways of Australasia - We then got the 40 minute MTR ride to the Chinese border. I had expected them to be pretty harsh but it was as smooth as any other border crossing to date, although the stamping lady triple checked my passport and said I look a lot better now?? She was either insulting my 21 year old picture (which I think looks pretty good with my puppy-dog droopy eyes) or she thinks I抦 super hot now!! I抦 claiming the latter匰o I was now officially in China, the most populated country in the world with 1.3billion people (although I am yet to witness anywhere near that number..). It was here we met our permanent guide, called Richard (he was Chinese and of course had a Chinese name but liked to be called Richard). I soon started calling him Ricky Boy and then a few of us would shout 揜ICKAAAAY!!?in a Bianca Jackson Eastenders style. I think Richard was confused. We had around 2 hours to kill in Shenzhen (pronounced 揝hen-jeng? so I went to a fastfood outlet translated to the Real Bruce Lee (so THAT扴 where he抯 been hiding厀ould love for him and Ronald McDonald to have a punch-up). Then we all boarded the train and set up home in our carriage that would be our residence for the next 13hours or so. The train was unlike the ones travelled on in Vietnam. Firstly, there were now 6 beds in a cabin rather than 4 (although the cabins here were higher) and the cabins didn抰 have doors so it was a bit more open plan. Another major noticeable thing was this train seemed a lot more modern with cleanliness and air-con. Almost straight away the ten of us plus Richard got involved in some card games and opened some beers. We then moved on to charades (hate to say it but I am just too good at guessing!) and then my travelling favourite of Mafia (which I don抰 think I抳e played since the train journeys of Vietnam 7 or 8 months ago..), I of course as narrator. Pretty much everyone was getting involved and it passed the time. So far so good with the group. Plenty of people with things to say, so no complaints there. One of the highlights was the entertaining Kiwi Neven exchange his recently learnt Mandarin with a female train officer to our delight. At 10pm the lights went out so everyone retired, except me and Kiwi Anna who had the American Office on her I-Pod, and you know what that means. I tried to sleep after, hoping that the beers would help, but I was wrong. I decided to read my good friend Chris Potter抯 travel blogs of China and Japan in the hope of remembering his deep, dull, Hull accent narrating would soon send me to sleep卙owever quite the opposite happened as I got more and more excited by what I might potentially see in the coming weeks that I read to the end some 2 hours later and laughed out loud plenty of times at this silly silly dear friend of mine?I might just copy and paste his blog into mine to save me typing?

(14/10/09) I perhaps only managed an hour or so抯 sleep. I woke up to find half my pillow soaking wet due to a leakage from the window, and then a puddle of water on the floor to match, soaking my rucksack. Not good. It was bout 6:30am and I had to wear my sunglasses to hide my tired face. It was drizzling outside as we stepped properly on the streets of China. Who would had thought I抎 ever be here? We were in Guilin (揌抴ay-lin?.not to be confused with my beloved 揌ayling?Island) of the Guangxi region (that borders Vietnam), but not for long as we boarded a small public bus for about an hour and a half and were entertained by some young Jackie Chan movies (I could 慳ve him). After a ten minute walk through town (and about 20 hours travelling since HK) we were finally at our destination of Yangshou (揧ang-shua?. I have never been to a town with surrounding natural scenery like this before. The place was surrounded by huge karst limestone peaks. Imagine 慛am抯 Halong Bay but instead of water there are streets. Breathtaking really. It is quite touristy with plenty of western restaurants and bars, so a good place to give us an introduction to China, which could be more challenging later on I reckon. We were given a list of activities to do and I signed up for a few. I really wanted to do the early morning hot-air ballooning around the countryside as heard it was amazing, but the price was a bit more than I had expected so decided against it. About 20 minutes later Richard informed us that four Dutch tourists had been killed that morning in Yangshou after the basket of the balloon basically blew up. Pretty bad. Not that I was booked onto it, and it wouldn抰 had been for today, but it抯 a pretty scary thought?After a quick orientation tour, we hopped in a minibus and went to a local market to see allsorts and I tried a bit of dog again (as you do). We then drove some more and saw some of the countryside and then got to the dreamy Li River which has countless of these limestone peaks a few hundred metres high engulfed by mist. It was such a superb sight despite a bit of drizzle and I think the mist only added to the effect, much like Halong Bay. We took this opportunity to jump on a bamboo boat (was in fact a half dozen drainage pipes stuck together) and we cruised on down the river admiring the view we were so fortunate to have in front of us. Lovely stuff!!! Along with plenty of other pics, we tried to replicate the picture on the Y20 (currency is Yuan by the way - some of us pronounce it the Spanish 揓uan?and in the end we call it 揓ohns?) note, which is from this area. Quite amazing how this landscape was formed by reclining sea water many years ago. In the evening we went for a Chinese (shock), but this one was more like one you抎 get in UK, except the Beer (braised in) Fish. We had some lager which was very watery and then played on a wonky pool table for a bit before half of us went on to the river again. This is a hard one to explain but we were on a boat going parallel with a bamboo boat which had six of these large birds called cormorants. The bird抯 feet are tired on some string to the boat and they swim dolphin/duck-like in front and repetitively dive down and occasionally come up with a fish in its mouth which its swallows. Turns out their necks are tied so they don抰 actually swallow the fish, so the trawler drags them into his boat and makes them heave out two or three fish. Although I found it fairly interesting the first few times, I actually think it抯 a bit inhuman. Bearing in mind I only really like animals when they are dead, chopped and cooked, that抯 saying something. Apparently this is what they抳e done for donkey抯 years (do we know how many years that is yet?) but have they not heard of a fishing rod or net? I抦 sure I could arrange for me and my childhood Hayling Island crew to show them the principles of crabbing (we caught sh*tloads one day!) I was glad that it was over and enjoyed strolling down the busy town with plenty of bars, cafes and shops selling the usual oriental tat. We had a very busy day and it was just gone 8pm but I opted to head back to my room to catch up on a bit of admin, then hopefully some sleep.. Its notably a big chillier in these neck-of-the-woods in the evening compared to HK by the way. It had been a long but very good day. I think I am going to like China匧et抯 see..

(15/10/09) This morning we are all up bright and early to do a bike ride around the place. We had pretty decent bicycles with suspensions etc that were very needed as we were soon on bumpy roads. I had big expectations of bike rides after having great days cycling in Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. After negotiating our way out of the busy town we were soon in more rural areas, speeding down roads with the picturesque scenery of these huge peaks around us, quite unlike anything I had seen before. We caught up with some privates/cadets of the Hong Kong Army who were on leave and they were real good fun. We exchanged Ni Hao抯 and Hello抯 and took pictures of each other and I even managed to beat one in a race!..I think I might sign up with them. We stopped off at a typical rural house and Richard explained what was what. As you can imagine, things were fairly basic, but they have free TV抯. We were introduced to an elderly Chinese man and his shy granddaughter. Outside they were building a new wall and I joked was it the new Great Wall to which the reply was a short 揘o? Humour yet to hit these parts. We even visited a school and helped some kids speak English. I was up at the front of the class (of about 10 kids) and wondered why teachers moan so much as it was pretty fun. We then could go one on one with a kid and although this ten year old seemed pretty interested in me helping him at first he soon got bored (ungrateful boy!) We cycled some more and I really was having a great time looking at the scenery and passing the locals, sometimes getting a Ni Hao, sometimes getting ignored?mostly getting ignored. It was at this point whilst flicking through my camera options (I had to buy a lame camera in Oz after last one broke remember?) that I found the Auction mode卲retty ridiculous as it could barely take normal pictures. We stopped off for a break on the river. We had to walk onto a bit of a wobbly jetty and poor English Hayley slipped and out of her bag slipped both her camera and phone into the river beneath. Really felt for her as that抯 a bummer. Richard and Nev managed to fish it out but it didn抰 look too good. She took it in good spirits though and we were still able to enjoy the river which had tens of bamboo rafts punting down it with tourists throwing water at each other as the sunshine decided to pop out and great us. Hello sunshine! We cycled some more and before lunch had a hike up Moon Hill, which is where a donut shaped hole has appeared through one of the big peaks. We were told the hike wasn抰 too bad but took longer than we thought heading up the steep steps as the sun was well and truly on full power. Another obstacle were the little Chinese ladies who would chase us up trying to sell us water etc and it turned into an Oriental Benny Hill saga for a while. We reached the top, with sweat dripping in our eyes, and despite the hard work the views from the top were worth it (sounds like a David Cameron speech then..sorry!). There indeed was a haze but we could see pretty far as these massive peaks pieced through the mist. Stunning. The walk down was much easier, although a few of us got shaky knee syndrome. We were treated to a feast of a lunch that was a far cry from the soggy, soupy stuff I have had before. Real good tucker. Although full to the max, Nev and I headed to the rock climbing place. I had a lot of fun in New Zealand when I abseiled down the waterfalls in the underwater caves of Waitomo, and even though I didn抰 do much climbing I thought I would give this a go. I had to squeeze into some climbing shoes that were perhaps half my size. My dislike of heights doesn抰 really exist anymore, however my inability to climb is as strong as it ever was. To be fair I did the first climb ok. Maybe 70-80ft high. The guy who was holding on to my safety rope at the bottom was shouting plenty of instructions and seemed to know all the cracks and bumps on the cliff wall like the back of his hand (seriously, how well do you know the back of your hand?). The most fun bit was abseiling down the wall though. I managed to get near the top of the second climb but the last bit seemed impossible for me so I gave up. My whole body was aching. The four hour cycle ride and hike really had tired me out so I was physically spent. Although I was allowed to climb some more, I was done for the day, although I will certainly try it again (once I have grown some muscles). I managed to cruise back to our new hotel (we had to change hotels) and I then had to face the hardest activity of the day - carrying my bags to my room on the fifth floor..it was a struggle, but I made it, I must say the three hotels so far have been way better than expected. I have had a room to my own which means I can be as messy as I wish. I needed a snooze so put my alarm on for 6:40pm in time to get ready and meet up for 7pm with my crew. Well a bit after 7pm I get a phone call enquiring where I was as my stupid alarm obviously needed an alarm itself. After a quick get ready I was with the gang (minus Alex and Chiara who had to pop to the hospital for some minor repairs) and we headed to the Impressive River Show - not my words there but the actual title (we all would love to write our own reviews, said the Wonderful Nick in his Thrilling Interesting Travelblog..). This show is directed by the same people that created the very spectacular opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. I抣l do my best to describe it but best trying to YouTube it or come see me as I just had to buy the official DVD?So imagine a manmade lake/lagoon surrounded by about 10 illuminated huge limestone peaks that riddle the area. We sit in the third row of some stadium seating, certainly a few thousand in the audience. The lights dim out, and the dramatic music blurts out. Across the lake in the distance a young Chinese lady is lit up and starts singing away whilst she is paddled towards the platform. She then buggers off and you see about 10 flames in the back ground, then about 50, then about 200, then about god knows how many匒ll these fishermen type chaps paddle into the main lagoon with beacons on both ends of their little boats and form up in very organised lines. Then from beneath the river each line of fishermen pull out a massive horizontal red ribbon (it抯 the only way I can describe it) and from this they give an impression of a red sea of waves. So much more happened including people coming up to very near the front and singing away. These particular performers were kids and some pretty tiny. Smoke machines and different coloured lights shoot across the lagoon at various points. I couldn抰 follow the story exactly but it was some kind of love story (ain抰 they always?) and the chaps would try to impress the birds (that means women in some parts of the world I hear) by a bit of a flaming jig and a singsong, which sounds a lot of effort (I always find a few cans of lager and a kebab does the trick..). Various other things happened including a platform coming out into the water and a big quarter moon appearing with some lady dancing on it. For the finale about a million (or so it appeared) performers come marching from the distance to the front dressed in black but with about a dozen light bulbs on so illuminating themselves. They then synchronised switching themselves on and off in unison and canon (I believe that is the right word, if not the correct spelling?)... Well, not sure what to say..Impressive?..perhaps.. MAGNIFICENT!! ..at least!!! It REALLY was impressive. Waaay better than any Holiday On Ice you may have seen back in the day. I don抰 think I have seen a better show, bearing in mind I have also been to a Ladyboy show!!! For a little town they really have gone to town ( can I say 搕own?twice in a sentence?. ..big grammatical questions in this paragraph!). All in all there抯 about a thousand people involved from the surrounding villages and they do the hour and a bit performance almost every night and sometimes twice. I was pretty gob-smacked after to be fair. Kind of makes my performance of Super Mario in my primary school production a tad tame, and we all know what an Oscar winning performance that was. When it had finished it was gone 9pm and my belly rumbled more than the applause of the show (I literally mean that - the largely Chinese audience are not big clappers despite it being amazing) so we headed for some western food and played some killer pool. We decided to have our first big night out in China and went to a bar which was playing bizarre music, which can only be described as Chinese Europop. We tried another bar but it was about 95% male in there and I presume was a bender bar. We then went into one more and although we were all in high spirits the music was crap. Whilst walking to search for another bar there was a guy dressed as Mickey Mouse. I was very sober at this point and questioned him to where the best bars were and where we should go and he answered we should 揋o home!? Cheeky fecking mouse I thought. He抯 suddenly got way too big for his boots in his gay pink castle. Proper sold out, not done a single film in two decades. I still have that surreal vision of me being ushered away by my group as I angrily shouted 揗ickey you mug!攨I must delete this blog before I have kids.. I soon calmed down after Mousegate and we decided to find a quieter bar for a conversation and that抯 exactly what we did. No one was in this bar but there was a guitar and microphone on stage so in the absence of karaoke I played to the bar (we were pretty much the only ones in there to be fair). English Hayley accompanied me on vocals and then afterwards we all did an accapela version of Bohemian Rhapsody. Classic stuff. I don抰 think the singing reflected how sober I was (damn the Chinese weak beer). We all went back to English Rachel and Kiwi Anna抯 room but called it a night soon after. Thought there might had been more Westerners around actually as during the day we saw plenty. Another fantastic day all in all, but quite a long one.

(16/10/09) I was up early doors and English Alex (although lives in Seville with Italian Chiara) and I went for a cooking lesson. I had enjoyed my previous cooking classes in Vietnam and Thailand so I was very keen to do another one. First up we went to the market where we saw plenty of veg, chickens in cages and dead dogs being skinned (HORRORIFIC!). We did the course with about four other British lads (Portsmouth massive) and was informed by Jenny our teacher that only six people had cut themselves in four years, so it was only right that I should be lucky number seven and sliced a bit of my middle finger (I blame the devious carrot I was slicing). A lot of Chinese cooking is in the preparing and chopping rather than actually using the wok. I made some odd looking dumplings, followed by a chicken dish and then some beer fish. It was all tasty stuff for sure. With my belly full to the rim I had a bit of a sit down and then Alex, Nev and I went down to the river front where we had a kung fu lesson. Our teacher/master/chap was a short guy but so quick and hard as nails. He showed us 20 different moves (the second 10 were same as first 10 but facing a different way) such as the Snake and Eagle Hand. Kicking, punching and chopping away. Some of the moves require decent balance, which I have little of. Many tourist would walk by and stare and take pictures of the three white clowns in front of them. Basically I am now a killing machine. I had hoped that he would show us the Bruce Lee One Inch Punch but he did not. At the end I tried slapping him round the face for fun (as you do) and he was so quick and within a split second he had my arm bent around and would had broken it with one more move. He was one hard MoFo, but a very nice and polite one. We watched the same episode of Mr Bean twice (as if it was too complex the first time) on the 1hr20min journey back to Guilin where we boarded our overnight train heading north to the province of Hubei (has more people than the UK in it and is just one of 25 provinices). Hayley抯 phone is now somehow working again after its swim the other day..

(17/10/09) At 7am we arrived in Wuhan (population 4+million). I managed to have my best sleep on a train to date. We had our very first glimpse of the Yangzi River which is China抯 longest river and the worlds third. It抯 6,300km long from where it starts in Tibet and then flows to the East China Sea just north of Shanghai. From Wuhan we had a four hour bus journey to Yichang where we had five hours to kill. Its actually a very nice city, also set along the Yangzi with plenty of parks and boating lakes and the fact that it was a sunny Saturday made it all the better. Most parts are very modern and clean as well. We met in the evening and headed to board our boat for our 2 night Yangzi River cruise of the Three Gorges. The boat was ok, about 200 people and we had a twin ensuite cabin with TV (crap signal). I had hoped for some Titanic-style romance (without the iceberg and sinking) and find a Kate Winslet lookalike but we were the only westerners on board and my Mandarin chat up lines are still very basic (揗anui?means beautiful eyes though..). We set sail and soon were on the back deck doing various drinking games with the very potent Firewater (rice wine) which I had purchased for less than 60pence. The thing with drinking games is that if you are with people who were quite a bit uncoordinated and not very good at reciting things or doing simple tasks (such as my situation) then you never get to drink as some plonker has ballsed up their turn before. It was good fun, and Richard our guide taught us a few new games and we all had a pleasant evening indeed.

(18/10/09) So the plan was to cruise down the Yangzi River in the Three Gorges area, marvel at the surrounding beauty and relax on the sundeck zapping up the sunrays that we have had in the last couple of days. Well, it was raining cats and dogs (no, that抯 not our lunch for the day..) so the views were somewhat disappointing as I stood there in my raincoat (a very late addition to my backpack). I took a few snaps, as did the Chinese tourists, however it seemed they were more keen on taking pictures of me and pale blonde Hayley. I literally had eight people queuing up for a picture with me! I felt like a celebrity. Some would exchange the little English they knew and I responded with the little Mandarin I knew (Hello, thanks, nice eyes..). Pretty funny really. Friendly people and one guy gave me his details for when I go Beijing (he was a big Man Utd fan..). Throughout the day we would bump in to him and he would wave at us and shout random English words. Much of the first half of the day was spent indoors, apart from coming out to take a picture of the first two gorges, and it reminded me of wet weekends at my folks caravan. For lunch we had a decent feed including a spicy chicken hotpot along with chicken feet, which as I抦 sure you guessed, I ate - quite a lot of bone and tastes just of the skin you would normally find on a chicken. In the afternoon we went on an included excursion up a tributary on a slightly smaller boat. We had little Chinese girl called Song give us some information on what we were looking at, including the third gorge. We then boarded our third boat of the day (a 16 person rowing boat), which had these local guys rowing us. They replicated how in the old days they used to pull the boats up stream. On the way back, Song started singing a few traditional songs where we had to shout Chinese words at certain times. Good fun. One of the rowers also had a go. Us Westerners then sang Row Row Row Your Boat and the six Chinese tourists sang us a little number. Back on the big boat, South African Simon showed me his India pics and a cracking one of him standing next to a picture of Ghandi and its really hard to spot which one is which!! You know I抳e never been a big fan of Saffers, but Simon is one of the good ones, like Nelson Mandela, without all that prison business.. To get through the Three Gorges Dam we had to go through five huge locks which was a far cry from the barges on the Grand Union Canal at home, but the exact same principle (although it took about 4hrs passing).

(19/10/09) This morning we were awake at 7am and our 2 night cruise up the Yanzi in the Three Gorges area was over. Richard had warned me that many people find the boat cruise disappointing, so with that in mind, I thought it was just ok. Weather aside, the scenery could had easily been better. Things were a lot different only a few years ago due to the newly completed Three Gorges Dam. This has a had a huge affect. It is now the worlds largest dam at 185metres high and 2kms wide, and produces the same amount of hydroelectric energy as 18 nuclear plants. It cost US$75bn which is a hell of a lot of cash. Behind the dam, the river depth has risen up by more than 150 metres so you can imagine what that did to the landscape we cruised down. Villages went underwater and two million people had to be rehoused as well as countless sacred sights and wildlife that got wiped out. There抯 been much debate about the whole thing, with claims of how unsafe the construction is (If the damn would to burst then the whole population of Yichang (a few million) would be wiped out in an hour)?Anyhow, we were now back in the un sunk Yichang and took a public bus to our hotel past a park with many people doing early morning exercises. We had a day and a half here after five hours spent here before the boat trip. It抯 way too long. I was bored after about an hour the last time I was here. The city is nice enough, but just nothing to do but shop in the many western style shops. I walked to the park by the river and read a bit but spent much of the day making the most of the free internet in my very nice hotel room. Of course, I appear to be a giant in these parts, and that along with my fair-ish hair and good handsome looks got me a lot of stares from everyone, and few hello憇, which is all fine by me as I was in their town which is not used to tourists. Alex and I didn抰 have time to grab a massage when everyone else went in Yangshou, so after getting a rough indication where one would be went to hunt it down as almost nine months heaving my rucksack around is slowly wearing my back and legs down. Very difficult. In two days in Yichang I saw no other westerners. No one spoke English, which is fine but they use Chinese characters and with over 50,000 of them its impossible to learn. We couldn憈 find anywhere that resembled a massage parlour so asked in a few bars. Of course they had no idea what we were saying so we had to articulate what we wanted. Not sure I will get the memory of me and Alex bursting into a bar and us shouting 揗ASSAGE MASSAGE!?and Alex rubbing down my back!! We got there in the end, but again, the language barrier was tricky, and we had no idea what we were getting and for how much. There抯 quite a fine line in Asia between an innocent massage and getting a whore..we wanted the former. Although nervous at first it all worked out ok, not the best or worst massage. Yichang is Richard抯 home town and we were thrilled when we he said we may go to his home. He lived in a really nice flat by any standards and not the shantytown or bamboo hut you might imagine. We met his very hospitable wife and his mischievous five year old son. Must be a hard for him as he spends so much time away from home, but then again I think he earns a little more than the average Chinaman, so swings and roundabouts. Afterwards, we went for the best meal yet. A bit of everything. So tasty, and so much. We then got the bus back to town to hit some karaoke. It was a weird set up. Quite similar to the karaoke centres I have been to in London at first, but the place was so overstaffed (a bit like everywhere in China - a medium sized pharmacy would have a dozen people surrounding you). There was an off-licence rather than a bar where u would be followed round by a worker who would put all the beers in his basket, take it to your karaoke booth, and open them. There was then someone outside each room and always someone cleaning the toilets (which is a far cry from the hole in the ground we have had so far)?In my many months travelling I have avoided all kinds of drugs, fighting, prostitution etc卋ut tonight I sinned more than ever and I抦 not sure if my family will forgive me卬ot sure how to say this, but 匢?.I厖.I sang a Robbie Williams song?God, I feel sick to the stomach writing this?I know I will never get your respect, but please may I have your forgiveness?!!?I抦 a bit of a karaoke snob and was disappointed with the choice options, but had a good night all the same.

(20/10/09) In the afternoon today we left Yichang to head north to the historic city of Xian (She-an) in the province of Shaanxi. Getting there involves almost an 18hr overnight train journey on a scummy train. That抯 all I have to say about that..

(21/10/09) So you know that 18hr train?匴ell, turned out to be 23 hours. Super. Finally got to busy Xian at lunchtime. It抯 a big old city I tell thee. First of all Richard took us on a bit of an orientation tour taking in the Bell Tower and Muslim Quarter, before we went to get some pork buns (bread/scone bun with roast pork in the middle). We stroller through the streets some more and its amazing how westernised this place is. So many chained shops, wide streets and pretty clean too. We ventured to the city wall and hopped on some tandems. I was partnered with German Jan (who we now called Ian) and I thought my plan of him in front would be great so I can be lazy and just glide while the efficient European did all the leg work, however there was no glide facility on these ye old bicycles. The wall was built in 1370 during the Ming dynasty (they love a dynasty) and its still in really good condition. Its up to 12m high and 18m thick. It was much fun and took in some good views of old and new Xian. We stopped now and then to take in particular sights and we did the 14km rectangular circuit in under two hours. In the evening we went for some more good food and I found Hans lager at less than 25 pence very agreeable. Afterwards we jumped in a taxi to the huge square in front of the Big Goose Pagoda, which is known as one of Xian抯 best known landmarks. We caught the end of a very 搃mpressive?water fountain and lightshow. It really was good. The way it was set up meant you could walk inbetween the jets with the pagoda illuminated in the background. Along with thousands of other people, we strolled around the walking street and posed for a few pictures with the random statues and headed to the other side of the pagoda where hundreds of locals were all dancing in unison. Some of the girls in our tour joined in, and before you know it, I was in the mix in some crazy dance train receiving applause from the crowd! Thinking that was enough sober dancing for one night, I ended up doing the Waltz with some random middle age Chinese woman and I was spinning her around all over the place. Great fun.

(22/10/09) Today we travel a couple of hours to one of China抯 greatest attractions; the Terracotta Warriors. I抣l give you a bit of background on this.. Back in 1974 (which is relatively recent) a farmer was drilling a well in this area and stumbled across quite a unique find. He discovered an underground vault containing thousands of bigger than lifesize terracotta soldiers and horses in battle formation. It is believed that Qin Shi Huang (former emperor around more than 200 years BC) demanded that this tomb be made for his death and the accompanying solders to guard him in the afterlife. It took more than 700,000 people years to make this (makes Wembley Stadium look like a weekend抯 work). Bearing in mind this was well over 2,000 years ago makes the whole thing pretty remarkable?Anyhows, I blagged a student ticket and we took the long walk through the very commercialised entry. The skies were smog-free for once and was a good temperature. We finally got in the complex and thought we would view the three pits finishing off with the best one. So first up was pit two and three, which houses a few thousand warriors and horses. There抯 quite a modern complex that covers the pits. In one of these we got a chance to exam five up closer and the detail of facial expressions and even hairstyles were all unique. No two faces are the same out of the whole army. Pit one is where 6,000 of the soldiers line up. The roof that now covers this place is more like St Pancras Station. Herds of tourists are in this place. I went into the museum and looked in a dimly lit room and was literally swept away in a wave of Chinese tourists. Thousands of them. Its all impressive (that word again stuff) here. Well worth a visit. Think we all had a very good day. In the evening I grabbed some street food from the Muslim Quarter and we gathered in Simon and Spanish Carolina抯 room for some drinks before heading to quite a trendy club. Security was tight and the bouncers wore bullet proof vests and metal hard hats. The place was packed and full of fashionable locals. Richard got us into the VIP area and I threw out some peculiar shapes on the dance floor. There was a DJ but every now and then a singer accompanied by a guitarist (think he was miming) would pop up at random places around the club and do a number. I actually liked the place but we stayed less than two hours.

(23/10/09) Today was our last day in Xian and was a free day as our night train to Shanghai was not leaving until later this evening. In the lovely sunshine I headed back to the Big Goose Pagoda (where the fountain show was) and had a looky look during daylight. Really big area. I went inside the grounds of the pagoda that was constructed in the seventh century. I then headed back to the tree lined Muslim Quarter and had a stroll about. I visited the Great Mosque, which was a Great disappointment as you can抰 actually go into the temple part of it. I walked down some of the narrow walk ways and bought some tourist tat and food before meeting up with the others in my group. It was now rush hour and getting a taxi to the train station appeared impossible so we literally squeezed on the bus, which I presume had a Tardis function, and boarded our delayed train to head east.

So that抯 Xian, folks! A very likable city. I抦 going to tell you about the second part of my China trip on my next blog. So for now, zaijian?

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Photos

Money money money
Check out the picture on it though...

Posers
Me, Jan (Ian), Nev, Carolina, Anna, Simon, Alex, Chiara, Rachel, Hayley

Hong Kong Army
They look like a bundle of fun..

More of the same
This time lots of bamboo rafts though..

Impressive River Show
VERY impressive

..and some more..
They are people you know..

This dude was not happy..
Perhaps because because I was dessed like an Emo...