Xi'an

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We arrived very early in the morning in the city of Xi'an. Xi'an is most famous for its proximity to the site of the Terracotta Warriors who were built to guard the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang. Its also a massive city of 6 million people and one of the most polluted cities in China. It turned out we were staying bang smack in the middle of the city beside the Bell Tower. Unfortunately the smog in the city was so bad the day we arrived we couldn't see the Bell Tower which was all of 50 feet away.

Our hostel was excellent and we met Justin who was also staying there at breakfast. We decided not to waste anytime and caught a bus out to see the Terracotta Warriors. We met some American girls on the bus who under the pretence of teaching were activelly holding christian workshops. They were good fun so we spent most of the day with them. Pit 1 contains approximately 8,000 warriors and is the highlight of the trip. Pit 2 is thought to have more but is not excavated yet. After visiting the warriors we headed back into the city.

After dinner and a few beers we decided that we wanted to climb a mountain called Hua Shan which is about 2 hours outside Xi'an. It is a tough hike with the highest peak (The South Peak) reaching 2,000 plus metres. Most people take the cable car to one of the lower peaks and climb to the top from there. However we decided as this may be our one chance we would do it properly and start at the bottom. Apparently a philosopher in ancient times said of Hua Shan "Sometimes the hard way is the only way" and we couldn't agree more.

Starting early in the morning we climbed to the first peak, the North peak in about three hours and after a bite to eat headed to the Central, then South Peak before watching the sunset on the western peak with a well earned beer. After the sunset we quickly made our way to the base of the East Peak to find some accomodation. The mountain boasts lots of hotels and hostels on top which is pretty crazy. The hostel we found was simply strapped onto the side of the mountain with one of the walls of our room , well the actual mountain itself (See Photos). After some noodles we slept well and got up at 5 the next morning to catch sunrise. Unfortunately the thick smog had followed us from the city and sunrise was non-existent. We made our way back to the North peak and caught the very cool cable car back down before walking back to the town of Hua Shan.

After getting back to the city we headed for some food and then onto the Muslim Quarter which was full of crazy traders and even crazier food. Ireland were playing Cyprus that night and we wanted to get back to the hostel early to try and find somwehere to watch the game. We met a couple of Aussies (Beau and Amy), who were on their holidays and they joined us on our trek to find somewhere showing the game. We failed to find a pub (Luckily judging by the result) but did have a good night.

Next day Justin left to head on to Chengdu while we took a day off.

The following day we were also heading onto Chengdu but we managed to visit the Bell and Drum towers (The smog having subsided somewhat) and visit a Pagoda outside the city walls (Which we were too cheap to pay into and looked at from the road) before heading to the train station.

Next Stop Chengdu....

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Photos

Crazy Mobile Phone Shops
Basically all the shops have all their employees on the street guiding you into the shop, we almost ended up inside before realising what was going on!

Comments

[Pauline & family]

Note from work
Just got your website from Alan and spent quite sometime reading it in work! It is fantastic how much you have done and seen so far - giving me the travel bug to visit some of these places. Best Wishes