An easy overnighter in "noisy class" on the sleeper train paved way for a morning arrival in a chilly but nice Xi'an. The hostel collected us from the station and let us enjoy the restaurant for nearly 2 hours whilst we waited for a cup of tea and a slice of toast. Messing about done with, we got on the next bus and found our way to the terracotta warriors. The first emperor was certainly a nutcase to order the building of this super army of warriors, each different in their own way with their own clothes, shoes, facial hair and expressions. The scale of the place is awesome with over 1200 figures dug up but with another 4000 expected to be unearthed in the next few years. A quick bus down the road and we made the ascent up the First Emperor's tomb. He must have been a pretty big bloke to have a grave that big! Interesting and disturbing details such as animal and human sacrifices around the site made the pretty place slightly eery. We took it easy in the evening as we prepared for our biggest and best mountain challenge so far: Hua Shan.

After an early start and 2 buses we started up the mountain accompanied by Nordic God of thunder, Tor. Well, he wasn't much of a god but he was called Tor. We lost him half way up when the going got tough. Some of the steps were almost half the size of our feet and were almost leaning out from the wall it was so steep. After 2 hours we got to the top where sword wielding tourists stood to have their photo taken - this was not quite what we expected and was obviously an illegal money making sham as the touts got rid of the swords and ribbon very quickly when the old bill turned up!

We had some well earned lunch then decided to climb a little further along Dragon Green Ridge and it was here we got the most exhilarating, breathtaking views - by far the best feeling since we started. Wow!

We started to make our way down in plenty of time - after meeting Tor again at the top he warned us 'leave plenty of time as it always takes longer than you think'. Boy was he right! We got the cable car down to where we had been told the bus would be. We saw someone else from the morning bus and waited. 4.20. The bus was to leave at 5. 'I'd better just check it is here' says Dave, and we are told it is down the road. We start walking and the winding road before us winds round the corner of the mountain ..we keep walking. Eventually we flag down a bus and beg them to take us - we have now 20 minutes to get to the bus stop proper. 15 minutes later we roll up just in the nick of time. I think we'd still be walking if we hadn't flagged down the bus!

After our Indiana Jones-esque escapades we took it easy and visited Shaanxi museum and Banpo Neolithic Village (soon to be re-named Bore-po by us). We saw a few stones that were over a million years old and that's about all that's worth mentioning.

On the last day we arose in time to join some locals in practising Tai Ji Qi (Tai Chi to you and me). I soon left one group when they started wielding swords and joined another, less fearsome looking group. The fluid, ever-changing movements were actually quite difficult to follow but I tried my best until the rain stopped play. We looked on at the various dance groups nearby then made our way back past badminton players in the street to our hostel to get ready for our next port of call: Chengdu.