Chinese sleeper trains are an experience! We took one from Beijing to Xi'an and were cramped into 6 berth compartments with three tier bunks up each wall. We all crowded into one compartment to drink some very dodgy 67% proof fruit flavoured spirit and play drinking games - great fun! We were sharing our compartment with a Chinese family who gave us manadarins for breakfast. The little girl was chatting away in Chinese to Mark and all he could say was 'uh ok'!

The highlight of Xia'an was the Terracotta Warriors which were amazing....however we also enjoyed wandering around the Muslim quarter sampling street food (most of which we could not begin to guess what it was!) and through the cultural streets looking at paintings and crafts. We also had an impromptu lesson in Chinese from 3 Muslim street traders who laughed at our efforts at pronounciation and seemed absurdly proud when we managed to say ' it was lovely to meet you' in Chinese'!