Xi'an was our next stop after Beijing; however it was almost the case that we didn't make it to our destination. Train travel in China was proving more difficult than either of us had bargained for. After queuing for an hour or more upon our arrival in Beijing we managed to secure two hard seat tickets for the overnight train to Xi'an. Hard seat was not our preference, but there were no sleeping berths available and seats were our only option. When the day arrived for our journey we slightly miscalculated the time it would take to get to the train station in Beijing and we arrived 30 minutes before our train was due to depart, plenty of time one would think? At the train station we found a throng of people trying to cross the sole, narrow pedestrian bridge into the station, then a huge crush to security check baggage (which is common in China - especially on the underground). 10 minutes left and we still hadn't even found our platform in the sprawling Beijing West station. We ran; Gemma slipped on the concourse; a policeman pointed out the correct platform and with seconds to spare we boarded the train, sweaty and out of breath. After all this excitement we were looking forward to finding our seats and enjoying the 12 hour journey in peace and quiet. How wrong we were.

In Chinese hard seat class the train company sells out all of the seats then proceeds to sell an almost unlimited number of unreserved standing tickets, consequentially the hard seat carriages are full, not just full, the carriage, the aisle and the spaces between carriages were jam packed with people, luggage, although strangely no chickens (which seem to be on almost every mode of public transport we've taken so far). Imagine a packed commuter train in London were everyone is travelling with at least 2 large bags. The train was so full that it was impossible to traverse the carriage without standing on toes and smacking people in the face with your bags. It was in such circumstances that we had to fight our way to our seats. The position worsened significantly when first the catering trolley and then the drinks trolley were regularly "wheeled" down the aisle at which point those passengers in the aisle put themselves and their bags into the laps of those passengers who were seated. Needless to say the journey was excruciating and sleeping was impossibility.

Our run of ill luck continued when our pick-up from the train station in Xi'an failed to show! We used this time to enquire about onward train tickets to Chongqing (eager to avoid more hard seat class tickets) but were advised that (improbably) all tickets for the foreseeable future had been sold out.

We were in Xi'an to see the terracotta warriors of course and both of us were very excited at the prospect of seeing one of the marvels of the World. There are other things to see in Xi'an; it is a thriving city that was once the Chinese capital. With the impending Spring Festival the city was alive with decorations and awash with shoppers. We visited the Big Wild Goose Pagoda which houses a particularly impressive Buddhist temple telling the story of Master Xuanzang (Monk Tripitaka) causing Craig to reminisce about the 70s TV show Monkey Magic. Gemma had never heard of it passing some comment about age,

When we went to the terracotta warriors we were not disappointed. The temperature (sub-zero again) had clearly deterred many visitors and stallholders and the complex was very quiet, but clearly caters for much larger numbers. We walked around each of the three pits starting with the smallest (Pit 3) at which we were very impressed as it had survived partly intact. Pit 2 was much less impressive as most of the figures have been destroyed and lie waiting to be excavated. Restoration work has only just started and is very much still underway. Pit 1 is the main event containing hundreds of figure which have been painstakingly pieced together and restored. In order to create the spectacle of the tomb, the restoration was necessary, but the fact that the figures have been pieced together and neatly lined up slightly detracts from the authenticity of the place. This is a conundrum to which there is no answer. Unrestored the figure lie in the ground in shattered fragments. Restored you are never sure whether you are looking at the real thing; nonetheless it is an awesome place to visit.

There is another tomb close by which we also visited. This tomb (the tomb of Shi Huangdi) has never been opened and it is thought to be intact. It is hoped that the difficulties in excavating it will be overcome and that a great discovery will be made. The entire infrastructure is in place should a fantastic discovery be made on the site and it is something to look out for in the future. At present the site is just a hill with some trees on.

On our last day in Xi'an we went to the excellent museum which was the first museum we had visited in China which organized it exhibits chronologically rather than according to the type of exhibit (vases, coins, seals etc.). This at last gave us a chance to piece together in our own minds how the various Chinese dynasties fitted together as we'd read so much about them in Beijing and Shanghai but hadn't understood the periods.

Thus ended our time in Xi'an. Our hostel had managed to procure some train tickets for us to our next destination of Chongqing; in a sleeper carriage nonetheless! We looked forward to a slightly easier journey!