Wednesday 27th April - arrive in Xi'an. The train station we got off at turned out not to be the main station, but a shiny new station miles out of town. Every taxi we tried to flag down refused us as apparently they were all going to the airport and not into town. Eventually we managed to get a taxi to wait long enough for Chris to call the hostel and pass the phone to the driver to get directions. We're staying Shuyuan Hostel, close to the centre of town. Xi'a...

Friday 22nd April - we walked from our hostel around the Forbidden City, through Jingshan Park, to the Lama Temple. We skirted around the outside of the City, which gave us some idea of how far back the City actually went. Jingshan Park, behind the City, was built from the soil evacuated to make the moat around the City, and as such it contains a hill from which you can get a view of the City. Although we'd walked around the City already, seeing it laid out befor...