Travelled from Beijing to Pingyao, a small ancient walled city, one of the last surviving in fairly original form and spent three days there in courtyard style accommodation - our host was helpful and friendly, though not over familiar - "just call me Mr Jai" he pompously said when we asked his name. Confirming that "it's a small world" ; we met an Irish couple (Jerry & Anne Marie) who we had met randomly in Beijing and a French guy (Medhi) who we had previously spent time with in Mongolia and also met by chance at the Great Wall.

From there we moved on to Xian( another epic train journey) a large frantic city and like all tourists, we made our way to visit the "Terracotta Warriors" which again was a "had to be there" experience. Photos and words are totally inadequate to describe the feeling as you stand in the actual "Dig Site" - The warriors stand in ghostly queues emanating a spooky presence - You keep looking round uneasily, expecting them to come alive, like the ghouls in Thriller. Some of their comrades-in-arms are still emerging from the clay, like a giant jigsaw of heads, chests and limbs, aspiring to be complete warriors again.

On our last day in Xian, we hired a Tandem and cycled on the City wall along its entire perimeter (about 17 Kms) -It was the first time that Heather was happy to follow but Dan thinks she may have tried to overtake on occasion.