We arrived in Xi'an late Friday night after a very long journey! We had left Yangshuo Thursday afternoon and caught a local bus to Gullin, from there we took a 27 hour hard sleeper train to Xi'an.The hard sleeper train was actually not as bad as it sounds, the bunks were actually more comfortable than the bed we had been sleeping on in Yangshuo! The trains are divided into cubicles, each one with 2 sets of 3 bunks. We had the middle bunks which are best as the bottom ones are used as communal seats during the day and the top bunks are about 8 ft off the floor and right underneath the speakers, which blare out music for most of the journey.

It was quite a noisy journey, with the Chinese people all talking over each other at the tops of their voices, the music from the speakers and many different mobile phones, rounded off with the chorus of people hocking up phelgm and spitting pretty much anywhere they fancy - nice!

We lived on tea and the instant pot noodles for the journey, which are never good at the best of times, full of MSG!The other things we noticed was how many of the men smoke and do so where ever they fancy, even lying on their bunks so the whole train carriage would fill with smoke!

Upon arriving in Xi'an at about 9pm, we got an electric scooter taxi to our hostel, which was quite an experience, the drivers did not seem to pay much attention to road signs or rules and a few times I was sure we were going to go head on with a car or worse a bus! But we made it, the electric scooters are very popular in China, we think they are a great idea and they are so quiet!

Saturday we went to the Louguantai National Forest to the Endangered Animals Centre to see the Giant Pandas. This was our only chance to see them as we can obviously no longer go to Chengdu, where the situation currently seems to be getting worse rather than better due to floods and several more smaller earthquakes hindering the rescue operation. The centre was basically a zoo and was quite a bizarre place, there was a great deal of space yet the animals were kept in very small concrete enclosures.

None the less it was amazing to see the Giant Pandas for real, big cuddly looking animals!! There were other animals at the centre including monkeys, birds, a leopard, deer and unique chinese breeds of animals, one which was a cross between a cow/sheep and one which we christened a 'Gonkey' which was a cross between a goat/donkey!!

Sunday we had an explore around the Xi'an City. Xi'an is a huge very old city dating back to the 11th century BC! It is one of the few cities in China where the old city walls are still standing, 12m high with a 14sq km perimeter, with gates in the north, south, east and west and surrounded by a moat. Yet this is nothing, the original walls enclosed a 83sq km area, 7 times bigger than it is today!

First we headed to the Muslim Quarter where the narrow streets were full of little shops selling touristy tat and lots of tasty cheap local food! We then saw The Drum Tower, The Bell Tower and walked all the way along East Street, which is the main shopping street, to the East Gate. There were many organised campaigns going on around the town, raising money for the earthquake victims and queues of people waiting to give blood which was very good to see.

Sunday evening we went to see the fountain and music show which is held in the Big Goose Pagoda Square for free! It was an amazing thing top see, the water was sprayed really high into the air in time to the music. It is at times like this that you realise just how many Chinese people there are in China, there were hundreds of people there watching the show this evening and apparently it is like that every night!! It was amusing to watch the Chinese trying to stand close to the fountains to have their photos taken, or running through the fountains whilst they were in full flow!!

Monday we went to see The Army of the Terracotta Warriors. An amazing discovery, built thousands of years ago, Emperor Qin Shi Huang, believing his rule would continue after his death ordered the construction of the life size terracotta army of 1000's of soldiers and horses in battle formation to be buried in the area surrounding his tomb, which has not yet been excavated. He was a little bit crazy, apparently he believed eating mercury would make him live longer and ate a bit every day, apparently his tomb also contains many jewels and mercury rivers!!

There are 3 pits that have been excavated, although there is still a great deal to yet be dug up. This was surprising to us and not what we had expected, as all the pictures you see of the Terracotta Warriors, it looks like they have excavated everything they can already and that the buildings within the musuem are full to the brim with the warriors. This is not the case and in fact, they have just moved all the good warriors to the front of the first pit.

Pit 1 is the biggest with 6000 warriors and horses found there. Pit 2 contained 1300 warriors and horses and Pit 3 contained 72 warriors and horses, although is believed to have been the army headquarters due to the number of high rank soldiers found there. Also in pit 2 there are examples of each type of warrior found displayed in a glass cabinet so you could see it close up and in detail. There were 5 main types of warrior found, kneeling archer, standing archer, cavalryman and horse, mid-ranking officer and general, each one differs and the craftwork and attention to detail on each one is amazing.

Monday was declared a national day of mourning in China for the earthquake victims and at 2.28pm, there was 2 minutes silence from the people, whilst all vehicles blared their horns for the full 2 minutes! It was a strange moment to witness. China is in fact now in 3 days of mourning, although most things appear to be running as normal still. Everyday there seem to be warnings of more earthquakes, even here in Xi'an, although we are not sure whether they are just being over cautious.

Tuesday we had a quiet and cheap day in preparation for our full and expensive day walking in the crazy hills of Hua Shan on Wednesday! Hua Shan is one of Taoism's five sacred mountains where 500 year old hermits became one with the universe whilst living on pine needles and wild herbs! This did not apply to us but the spectacular scenery certainly did! There were knife blade ridges, vast stretches of greenery and mountains and old twisted pine trees hanging on by their roots!

We went in a cable car to reach the first part of the mountains, which was definately the scariest cable car we have ever been in! We had beuatiful views, despite the haze, as we walked a loop around the 4 peaks, north, west, south and east. South Peak was the tallest at 2160m high! Some of the paths were a very steep climb, more like ladders than paths that required the use of chains to pull yourself up with! It was a long but satisfying day, good to get some exercise, our legs were like jelly on the way back down from all the steps!!

Hua Shan is a very popular tourist spot for the Chinese, they were all in high spirits despite the hard climbs! They were quite surprised to see us Westerners trekking around and I had to have my photo taken with about 6 different people, one after the other, I asked for payment but they just laughed! I felt like a celebrity!!

It is a tradition with the Chinese to take a padlock and leave it up there, apparently locking your love up there forever, they are everywhere you look! So Andrew and I left a padlock on South Peak, did not go as far as getting it engraved as many people do!

We leave Xi'an tomorrow by bus and head north to Pingyao.

Lots of Love

Sarah and Andrew xxx