Hi there everyone hope you are all well and doing fine.

Our last night in Beijing we went to an outdoor "night market" it's a huge street set up with about a hundred stalls all selling differnt food such as snake, crab, scorpions, silk worms etc we were noy daring enough to try some but we had spicy crab which is a whole crab on a stick, pigs intestines (which was actually lovely)deep fried cream cakes (Joes choice obviously) duck pancakes (not very original but nice) have got some photos to upload of the market which shows some of the stuff they were selling.

Sunday was our last day in Beijing we decided to take it easy we had to check out at twelve but did not get up till eleven so had a quick dash of packing everything up and showering managed it fine and then checked out. We had met some lads from London the night before so had stayed up with them a little later than planned so decided to go and get fish and chips for lunch, apsolutley lovely better than the Florence chippy!

We went to Tainnaman square for a walk round it was huge managed to get some good photos (which will be uploaded once we get to our new place) we went to the Forbidden City and walked around it we were catching the train at night so headed back to get sorted, we were sharing a taxi with two ladies we had met on the Great Wall day as they were also going to Xian. We said goodbye to Beijing and got the taxi to take us to Beijing train station, the station is HUGE biggest train station we have ever seen and full of hustle and bustle, we qued up and had some strange looks whilst waiting as we were the only westerners around.

We were a bit aprehensive about the train journey but needed not to be as once we started to board we were shown to our cabins and because we had chosen the "soft sleeper" we had a great room with two bunk beds in we had chosen the bottem two beds so had two facing each other it was well comfy and loads of room, so we waited to see who would be shring the cabin with us a two young chinese guys arrived got pretty much straight on the top bunks and we did not really here or see them at all, we had a couple of beers then it was lights out about eleven o clock I slept till the next morning eight o clock Joe was still slepping was one of the bext nights sleep we have had since our trip began. The train pretty much arrived in Xian once we awoke so we left the train and were met by someone from the next hostel.

Arriving at the hostel (after another scary bus ride there are no rules on the road at all) it looked small and dark but once inside we could not belive it it's huge and beautiful like a victorian hotel, we were shown to our rooms could not believe how nice it was and for six quid each as well!

Xian is a lovely place but don't think they see many westerners as we were getting really started at on our first day when we went shopping. We booked onto a trip for the next day to take us to the Terracotta Warriors.

The terracotta warriors is a huge army that was built underground by the emperor to protect him when he died we left about half nine for the warriors stopped along the way to see how they were being reproduced in the factory and to take photos (we had obvioulsy taken the Stoke flag so this came out at this point photos will be uploaded at next place)we stopped for a traditional chinese meal along the way they bought about six or seven differnt dishes out for our group to share, we had a great day the warriors was amazing really unusual. On the way back on the bus the tour guide got the microphone out and we were all made to sing our different anthems so there me and Joe were on our way back to Xian singing "god save our queen" how embarassing !!

Anyway have got loads more to tell (a very mad story) but we are catching a train in half an hour to Chendu it's a sixteen hour journey we arrive five o clock tomorrow morning we are going to the panda rescue sanctuary where they are trying to breed them to stop them becoming extinct so will update everything else once we arrive there.

We are both really well hope everyone at home is take care ps its raining here!!!!