Day 302 - Start of our final leg

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After a quick visit to Gren’s workplace when in Korea, we waved goodbye to Gemma’s parents as we begin the final leg of our trip - the next time we see anyone we know will be when we get back to London in 2 months time. We managed to get our flight time correct this time and enjoyed a hassle-free airport. At check-in they even tell you how many minutes security check will take (3 minutes they told us and they were right). We flew to the Chinese city of Xi’an, which is near to where the Terracotta Army was unearthed. After walking around for ages searching for our hostel we eventually found it but found that they had helpfully cancelled our reservation because we hadn’t arrived before noon. That kind of baffled us, but they gave us dorm beds which in Chinese ‘Golden Week’ was the best we could hope for. The dorm room came with its resident 5 year old, a first for us, though he was adorable. Then we walked to the station, discovering along the way that our Rough Guide had got its map scale wrong (again). This week is full of Bank Holidays in China and it’s utter mayhem. Anyone with a choice should avoid travelling at this time, we don't have a choice. We’d gone to the station to try and get tickets for a couple of days time and goodness gracious me was it busy. For our 14 hour journey they only had one class of ticket remaining - standing. We have no idea what to expect but aren’t terribly optimistic. For anyone who thinks we’re on a year-long holiday, please take note.

Xi’an itself, or at least what we’ve seen of it, is a beautiful, historic and affluent city. Probably the best part is the city walls themselves which are completely intact and enormous. They really make the inside feel like the genuine city with the outside being far inferior. They also have a lot of air pollution, but you can’t have everything can you.

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