Well i have finally left Beijing i really loved this place it was very relaxing bit modern so it doesn't really represent the true china...

Anyway i got the overnight train it took around 12hrs so i just stayed in my bunk reading and chilling. the train arrived around half seven in the morning i headed to the bus station to get the local bus into town didn't really have a clue where i was heading but with the help of my lonely planet book i managed to find the right bus it dropped me of by the Bell tower i was going to stay in the Bell tower youth hostel its located just around the corner from the bus stop which was good..

I booked myself into a 8 bed dorm i dumped my kit in the room there was a few people in there pits sleeping so i headed to the second floor and grabbed some breakfast, after i had eaten i went for a walk around the city of Xian which is the eternal city.
Records of the great changes of the Chinese nation just like a living history book. Called Chang'an in ancient times, Xian is one of the birthplaces of the ancient civilization in the Yellow River Basin area of the country. During Xian's 3,100 year development, 13 dynasties such as Western Zhou (11th century BC - 771 BC), Qin (221 BC - 206 BC), Western Han (206 BC - 24 AD) and Tang (618 - 907) placed their capitals here. So far, Xian enjoys equal fame with Athens, Cairo, and Rome as one of the four major ancient civilization capitals.

Xian is the capital of Shaanxi province, located in the southern part of the Guanzhong Plain. With the Qinling Mountains to the south and the Weihe River to the north, it is in a favorable geographical location surrounded by water and hills. It has a semi-moist monsoon climate and there is a clear distinction between the four seasons. Except the colder winter, any season is relatively suitable for traveling.

I headed back to the Hostel after walking around for a couple of hours i decided to just chill and see who was hanging around the pool table.. i walk in sat down and looked up and Jonas walk in i met him and his Girlfriend in Beijing so at least i had someone to do stuff with.. The guys had already seen the Terracotta army so we thought of other stuff we could do over the next few days Xian has some lovely temples Etc.

In the evening we headed to the Fountain light show near the Big Goose Pagoda it was really busy the fountain is split into 4 sections and is around the size of a football pitch.. The music began and on came the lights the water is shot high into the air and it seems to be dancing to the music it lasted around half hour..
We headed back to the hostel and had a few beers with other people that was staying there.

After a bit of a lie in i finally got up and headed to breakfast Jonas and menona was still in bed when they finally surfaced we headed out to some of the sights The big wild Goose pagoda those who can remember the TV Series Monkey this is the pagoda that was often featured. The Temple was built around 648 by Emperor Gaozong to house the Busshist scriptures that had been brought back from India by the traveling monk Xuan Zang , the small goose pagoda was the next stop this is not in the TV series monkey but it is still worth visiting unfortunately we couldn't get in so i presume its not open to the public?? so we headed down some alley ways and there was alot of poverty down these little streets but the people still smiled and said hello in there best English..

The people are very curious about westerners but in a sweet way not a nasty way they sit and stare as you walk past, the little children would run pass and say hello and start laughing i found this very funny its very sweet..

Next we headed to the Muslim Quarter Xi'an has a large Muslim community. There are many narrow lane-ways some of which are lined with shops and stalls. There are some very good tea houses and restaurants in this area. Nanyuan Men, Huajue Xiang, Damaishi Jie and Biyuanmen are some very good streets to wander along.

Next we headed to the south gate the city of Xi'an is surrounded by a massive wall this was built by Zhu Yuanzhang the first Emperor of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), the wall stands 12 meters (40 feet) tall, 12-14 meters (40-46 feet) wide at the top and 15-18 meters (50-60 feet) thick at the bottom. It covers 13.7 kilometers (8.5 miles) in length with a deep moat surrounding it. Every 120 meters, there is a rampart which extends out from the main wall. All together, there are 98 ramparts on the wall, which were built to defend against the enemy climbing up the wall. Each rampart has a sentry building, in which the soldiers could protect the entire wall without exposing themselves to the enemy.
Besides, the distance between every two ramparts is just within the range of an arrow shot from either side, so that they could shoot the enemy, who wanted to attack the city, from the side. On the outer side of the city wall, there are 5948 crenellations, namely battlements.Xian City Wall. It's the most complete city wall that has survived in China, as well being one of the largest ancient military defensive systems in the world.

Once we arrived at the south gate we headed up onto it where we hired bikes and cycled around the total length of it, Jonas and Mionah a got a tandem the weather was gorgeous so we took some good photo's and just took our time cycling around the wall..

Later that evening we headed out to a local restaurant and had some really good Chinese cuisine, followed by some beers and then some more we just played pool and sat around chatting..
I was going to the terracotta army in the morning so i didn't want to be to hungover for that but it didn't happen LOL..

I will update you about the Terracotta army later and add some photo's