Ni hao (Hello) everyone,

We're in Xi'an now and after such an amazing time in Beijing we didn't think anything could top it. However, Xi'an came pretty close. Its really lovely here and even a bit more traditional than Beijing! The only small problem is that its really, very, stupidly cold :o( But apart from that, all is great :o)

The first day we got here we just did the normal of just bumming around town to see whats about. The whole city is inside a wall which is over 8 metres tall and 5 to 6 metres deep. It is the only original city inside a wall left in China today. Also in the middle of the city is a large bell tower with just four main roads running north, east, south, west from it. So its very simple to navigate around here. The bell tower is just as it says. A largish tower with a bloody big bell in it. Also just 100 metres west from it is the drum tower. This was to signal different times of the day & night but is not used anymore, shame. You are allowed to go inside it and strike some of the drums. Check out some of the photos to see how huge the drums are. We're all used to hearing the boy racers with their thumping bass pouring out of their cars but you haven't heard real bass till you strike one of these drums, the larger ones that is. They were amazing.

We also went to see a Pagoda. There are two here. One big, the other small. We just saw the bigger one. It was set in beautiful grounds away from the busy roads. You pay to walk the grounds and pay some more to climb the Pagoda. It was a bit more than we'd like to of paid but was very good neither the less. Also was able to get a couple of good photos of Xi'an from up there.

As some of you know, we are off to Thailand in a little over 2 weeks. So we had to get our Thailand visas here. It would of been 30 pounds each if we'd done it in Hong Kong. It was only 13 pounds each here. So as you could imagine, we were really made up with that. It also means we don't have to spend extra time in Hong Kong and have more time in the remote places where we'd much rather be. Also took only 2 days.

We ventured into the muslim quarter. Here was the location of the Great Mosque Temple. The amazing part about this was its still used today. Felt a little weird walking around but it was very peaceful. It was right next to a very long market all situated down tiny back streets. Really cool place to have a look around and I (Darren) bought a couple of "copy" watches. Just as Lonely Planet states, copy watches are every where. You'll ignore them at first but once you realise just how cheap they are, then you'll be snapping them up! Its so true what they said and I'm very happy with my purchases :o) We even compared them to the real ones in the shops (worth over 8 grand together) and certainly couldn't tell the difference. All the fake stuff out here whether it be watches, handbags, wallets look very real. Apart from the 'North Face' items as they're just laughable over how poor they are :o)

The 'Terracotta Warriors', the 8th wonder of the world. Oh my god... This was more like it. If you want to be blown away in China, don't visit the 'Great Wall'. Go and see the 'Warriors' instead. OK ok, the wall is good but this was amazing. And the best thing was we did it all by ourselves with no tour guide or 'rip you off' package. We worked it out it cost us a 3rd this way instead of doing it with a tour operator. Really happy. Its one of those that makes your heart skip a beat when you see it. Its very hard to describe it or put it into words, but wow! We just hope the photos we took do it justice. Certainly would of loved the use of a ludicrously expensive camera for here! The whole site is huge, really huge and based around 3 pits. Of which one is massive, one is quite a bit smaller and the other (the biggest) is still being worked on. You get to go in all 3. Even though they are over 2000 years old, the detail is breath taking. A lot of the figures are incomplete in some way but still amazing. In the main pit, the warriors around the edge are facing outwards to protect the other warriors inside. You just stand there in silence while cant quite believing that its real and that people actually made all this. You just cant get over the scale of this place. Hard to also believe it was discovered by just two farmers digging a well! We also meet 3 New Zealanders here. Said we're from Brighton, England. To which one replied "my mum lives in Brighton". Small world or what! Don't want to keep on about the Great Wall but these 3 people also went to the same part we went too and said they couldn't get over how tacky the whole thing was. Also they hated the way it all seemed fake with so many stalls selling cheap souvenirs. Also since our visit to the wall, we have discovered a lot of travellers on this website also stating how unimpressed they were with their trip to the wall. So it wasn't just us then!!! We could name the section of the wall but feel that wouldn't be right. Anyway, the warriors..... Really bloody good :o) and is defiantly one of the best things we've done yet. Up there with Disneyland Hong Kong, Kruger Safari and eating those scorpions.

Tomorrow we are going to Guilin. We've been looking forward to this place ever since we arrived in China. Supposed to be very mountainous and full of other travellers which we've missed since leaving South Africa. We've used the train and buses to go from place to place but we booked a plane through our hostel as they get 70% discount here. Works out that we save around 50pounds and its 28 hours by train but only 1.5 hours by plane. So really happy with that. Our hostel here also booked us our onward accommodation in Guilin, again with a little discount. So winners all round then :o)

We'll update the photos of Xi'an (also trying to upload photos of the wall but having major trouble and even got a guy back at STA in the UK trying to sort it out) hopefully next. Speak to you all soon after we've settled for a few days in Guilin.

Take care and lots of love Darren and Gemma xxx xxx