Day 13 After waiting 5 minutes for our free pick up from the hostel we were about to find a bus when someone came rushing over with Eve's name in his hand, our free pick up! We arrived at the hostel and thought it was dark and gloomy unitll we realised they had a power cut. We slept for a few hours and then had a much needed shower and headed for the muslim quater. On the way we seen the roundabout-converted Bell Tower and then the Drum Tower- both of which were closed. We browsed the stalls of the market and tried to find some prices we then realised like most places, if you ask how much you can't leave with nothing. We didnt want anything so after much toing and frowing I was called a 'bad man' for not buying anything and walked away. We then bumped into Dom again. The same person we seen in Pingyao after initially meeting him Datong. We walked around the markets for a while then found a 'hotpot' restaurant. This is where there is a big table to sit around, with a gas stove underneath the table in the centre. Here they place a large metal pot filled with boiling soup on it. You then choose your noodles, meat and veg and throw it all in to cook and then scoop it into your bowl to enjoy! It was brilliant fun and delicious. The three of us went back to the hostel and played some cards till late.

Day 14 For breakfast Eve seen a stall selling chinese wontons which she was very excited about. This didn't quite turn out to be the delicious crispy prawn filled ones we know at home. But a spring onion and corriander soup with seaweed and the wontons were boiled and sloppy filled with tiny whole shrimp- yes the shell and head! It was lovely though and filled us 'til tea. Next was the Terracotta Warriors. We walked to the train station to find the bus station- which was the train station car park. We managed to get student tickets from the ticket office very easily although the next checkpoint proved more difficult. After asking for ID they seemed to except my driving licence but Eve had nothing. The ticket checker knew no english and we managed to ironically talk our way through. We headed for pit 3 which is the smallest of the three excavation pits. They say there is about 2000 currently uncovered with an approximate 6000 in the area in total, so who knows how big the complex will be in 20-30 years time. We were impressed with pit 3 as within the Y-shaped pit there were horses and warriors all reconstructed and looking fabulous. Pit 2 was a massive dissapointment. It was huge in comparison to 3 yet hardly any of it was uncovered, it looked as if the wooden rafters which covered the warriors, had sank so much that anything within the chambers was crushed. Pit 1 is where all the photos are shot. The pit was massive and took sometime to walk around because of all the chinese tourists. Again so much of it was still covered and we saw loads of archeologists working away but seeing the warriors in rows side by side was certainly impressive. Back at the hostel there was a dumpling night but to tie us over we found a stall selling fried pancakes with chicken and onion and beef and spring onion which were very nice. The dumpling party was great fun, we were taught how to make dumplings from scratch and then ate our handy-work once cooked.

Day 15 After a busy day yesterday we rose late and caught the bus to Xian museum. It was a small museum which gave a brief history of the city and was interesting enough. We then strolled around the surrounding gardens which were beautiful and seen the Small Goose Pagoda. On the way back we popped to the ticket kiosk for our train tickets but were a day early so did some planning instead. The chinese lad in our room was talking to us and told us about a cheap noodle place round the corner so the three of us had tea there. It was brilliant having someone who could speak chinese but we felt he was almost our waiter as he got us chopsticks and ordered for us! It was very nice and very filling, just what we needed! When at the hostel before bed I was scratching my bites and he said he had some medicine. So he got out a pot of what smelt like Vicks and I rubbed some on, he told us we would be bit more near the south so let us keep it which was very generous.

Day 16 We went to buy our train tickets at the nearby kiosk but we couldnt understand each other so caught the bus to Shaanxi museum instead. Again it was free but much bigger than the one yesterday. It housed loads of ancient artefacts and talked you through the history of China. We found the exhibition on the Silk Road fascinating, how a group of chinese soldiers walked westards from Xian for 15 odd years to find other civilisations and were the pioneers of linking up west to east by land! However we soon got sick once again by the incredibly rude chinese tourists and left. A trip to the train station was necessary to work out when we could get tickets and after queueing for an hour and a half we were told to come back tomorrow. Brilliant! We did however manage to help out an american traveller with his train and showed him the bus to get so did our good deed for the day. For tea we tried the local dish- rice noodles, with diced bread, veg and strips of beef, Gorgeous. We got chatting to an Irish lad in our room and watched the live music in the hostel with him and chatted for a while.

Day 17 Again we were back at the ticket kiosk and we were simply told 'no' when we asked for tickets. After much questioning we were getting nowhere. We were fuming and sick of the chinese ticket staff. She spoke good english and then all of a sudden forgot every word but no! Its a very good job the hole you speak to her through is tiny. We then went back to the hostel for help and the arrogant woman there was just as irritating, She spoke such good english she taught herself how to be patronising, which we were having none of! We soon got bored of her and decided to simply go back to the station itself. We again waited for 20 mins at the only foreigner counter- to which the locals love queueing up at. Then the counter closed as the woman went for lunch. An hour had passed and we finally go to the front and managed to tell her where we wanted to go to and which date. Fantastic, we got our tickets. Only for them to be departing the wrong city. We jumped back to the front and after some confusion we got them changed. Three days and around 4 hours of queueing it took us to get those bloody tickets. Relief! At 1pm we ate breakfast, again an amazing pork sandwich from a street stall and went in search of the Folk House. On the way we bumped into Mika, the American from the train station and he asked to tag along which we didn't find at all. It didn't take long to find the Folk House hidden behind the market. It was lovely with little courtyards and old residential rooms, we watched a traditional shadow puppet show and ended by getting a personal tea taster session. This was brilliant, they used all the traditional equipment and made the tea on an old tea table carved from a tree. We tried Selenium, Lychee and Gingseng woolong teas and the three of us were now invincible against any disease or infection. In the market we managed to haggle our way to a good price for some chopsticks and feasted on some lovely noodles before saying goodbye to Mika and headed for the night train.