Ni Hao

The snow stopped falling yesterday and the big thaw started making all the roads and paths really slushy. After an immense lie in and a late lunch we took the short walk into the city for a look around the Bell Tower. This building is around 700 years old and was built in the Tang Dynasty. We spent some time looking around the building and climbing the steps to get pretty good views of the city and the streets that run off it.

On the way out we got chatting with a guy who was hand making an ancient flute instrument out of Ban Po clay called a Xun (pronounced Chun) they date back about 6000 years and are one of the oldest instruments around. He played us Jingle Bells and Little Donkey before we ended up purchasing one of these egg shaped instruments!!!!

I think the cold must have gone to our heads as we then decided to take a walk along East Street all the way to the West Wall of the city. We had hoped to get on the wall but because of the snow it was shut so we had to make do with walking around the perimeter all the way to the South Gate before re-entering the city there.The whole walk was around 7km but it did keep us warm.

The wall in Xi'an is over 600 years old and pretty impressive it is aroud 18 metres thick at the bottom and 12 metres thick at the top and still in a very good state although the most famous wall in the world has still to come and we will be visiting that in about a weeks time in Beijing.

After warming back up in the hostel we decided to try the Night Market it is in the Muslim Quarter and sells a range of spices and dried fruits as well as having some fantastic street food for next to nothing. Needless to say within 5 minutes of arriving the sounds and smells had got the better of us and we were munching on our first snack.The whole market is full of people shouting and trying to get you into their restaurant and shops for a look around with steam and smoke everywhere from all the cooking vessels on the street.

Thankfully nothing caught our eye so we left with full tummies but empty shopping bags, which isn't a bad thing!!!!

Today we leave at 5pm on the overnight train bound for Nanjing (3 hours from Shanghai) for a couple of days before moving on to Shanghai for 3 days which should be fun.

Will be in touch from Nanjing.

Lots of Love

M & M

xx