So we stepped off the fancy oxygen train and landed in Xi'an - our first proper taste of China. And our first proper taste of a major city since leaving Londres 2 months ago... And our first proper taste of a wicked bar that wouldn't look out of place in Londres... Except all the clientele (well the Chinese patrons) were playing that weird throw-the-dice game in silence whilst drinking out of 3 litre beer dispensers. A few free beers later (we wish every hostel would give out free beer) we stumbled up to the dorm making a right old racket and we were convinced that we'd annoyed the hell out of the two guys trying to sleep in their bunks - only to discover the next morning that the guys were in fact deaf!

So with a teeny hangover the following morning, we went to see the Army of Terracotta Warriors - the subterranean life-size army of thousands of bits of terracotta pieced together as soldiers buried under the ground for over two thousand years until a farmer decided to dig a well and came across something bigger than just a hard rock. Now for any of you who saw a few of them when they were shipped over to the British Museum, it is amazing to get your head round the fact that this crazy Emperor ordered thousands of people to build this 'army' to guard his tomb once he'd died and even more amazing to think it was left completely unknown and undocumented until it was discovered in the 1970s. But we couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed as so much of it still remains underground and undiscovered (I guess it does take a really long time for these archaeologists to brush all the muck off bit by bit) but also it wasn't particularly well displayed - my sister and her Masters in Museum stuff would not have been impressed. Anyhoo, it was pretty cool all the same and even more fun was the souvenir buying - minature warriors galore. But Ant + a hangover + shopping = not a good idea. Just you wait Janine...

Back in Xi'an centre, which has clearly had the money pumped in since the discovery of the above, all smart with its city walls intact (although in the typical Chinese way they are not original and have been rebuilt), we checked out the sights with the stragglers from our Tibet tour and ate loads of tasty dumplings and persimmon cakes in the Muslim Quarter. Then in the evening we went to the Big Goose Pagoda to watch the 'greatest light, sound and fountain show in all of Asia' (why does everything have to be the greatest? what's wrong with number 2?) - and actually it was pretty awesome. But getting that ultimate camera shot meant getting pretty wet... We then wandered round the park for a bit and the property geek in us came out when we oooo-ed and aaaaah-ed over the most impressive 'public realm' we've ever seen.

Sadly the one thing we didn't get to do was to hike up Hua Shan - a sacred mountain - because of the snow starting to fall. Cold, sleety English-stylee snow. Hmmm perhaps it wasn't the best idea to come to China in November.