Xi'an, probably the most visited city in China after Beijing and Shanghai, turned out to be well worth the flight from Beijing. Flying was not really consistent with our budget ambitions, but with no other choice but to spend our whole visa-allocated month in Beijing, we eventually caved in. The hour and a half flight with East China Air was comfy, relatively cheap and we were well fed, but best of all we avoided a grueling 14 hour train trip.

On the bus from the airport into the old city walls of Xi'an, we were greeted with an energetic display of coloured lights and luminescent lanterns covering the gate and surrounding trees, and any thoughts of escaping the fireworks in Beijing were soon crushed with a brilliant display above the city gates upon entry.

Safely within the city walls, our first task was to find the hostel. Our not-so-trustworthy lonely planet guidebook directed us to Hung Tan youth hostel. We entered the front door expecting a typical warm chinese welcome, and were faced with four chinese men in a bare grey room who seemed to have been interrupted from their dinner.. After a few confused and frustrated attempts at communication, we left. It turned out that our hostel moved locations a year ago but forgot to remove the signs. We squeezed our possessions and selves into the cabin of a tiny 3 wheel bike, and soon received that warm welcome we were expecting.

Xian lived up to the hype, with a creative and kind of bohemian feel. We could have spent weeks just wandering around, trying all the tastebud-tantalising street foods (especially around the muslim quarters) and enjoying the music of buskers and ongoing new year celebrations.

In between feasts, we managed to visit the very intimidating underground army of terracotta warriors... Emperor Qin Shi Huang, apparently a fanatical paranoid control freak, enslaved hundreds of thousands of peasants to create an underground life size army, complete with horse led chariots full of crossbow-bearing archers. The army had silently stood guard over the dead emperor for over 2000 years until its discovery in 1974! To see this was mind-boggling, and despite our efforts, we could not see any warrior with the same face! Almost as enthralling as the warriors were the thousands of Chinese tourists who pushed, shoved, elbowed and nudged their way through the masses for a quick self-portrait with the army!

The tomb of Emperor Jingdi, a Han dynasty emperor influenced by taoism, was another archaeologists dream... only rather than an underground army, this guy had the peasants carve representations of everyday life. Less intimidating, but in many ways more interesting than the terra-cotta army, the excavated pits included displays of farming practices, weather patterns, trade and government. A very modern building and museum has recently been built around the ongoing excavations, where you can cover your shoes with bright blue plastic bags and walk over a glass floor to peer directly into some of the pits!

On our final day in Xi'an we paid a small fortune to ride bikes around the old city wall. It was well worth it though as we passed sky scrapers, slums and temples. The entire wall was surrounded by a moat, with a leafy foreshore packed with dogs, rickety old treadmills and Tai Chi practitioners. Parts of the wall were decorated with more colourful reminders of the chinese new year, including pandas, rabbits and buddhist statues. We were so inspired that we bought a little red rabbit to bring luck for our travels throughout 2011.

Sorry for rambling, but we really did like this city, and would have stayed longer if not for the fickle availability of seats on a Chinese train..