Well... the overnight sleeper train was an experience! We all gathered at Beijing Train Station in the evening and boarded the train about 8pm. Our guide did a 'lucky dip' with the tickets to try and mix the group up, but we all swapped to be with the people that we were travelling with! The train was really long and full of sleeper carriages. We passed the 'deluxe' carriages hoping that they might be where we were going, but sadly it wasn't to be! It was a bit like Bullseye... "here's what you could have slept in"! We were lead to a six berth sleeper carriage which had very thin corridoors. It was full of local people who were staring at us, however I don't blame them - 16 shocked westerners carrying oversized backpacks must have looked very odd!

We shared our cabin with one other girl from our group and three local people who just stared at us the whole time! It was quite embarassing really trying to sort our stuff out in a tiny cramped berth with people watching. We did communicate with them later though and learned a few Chinese phrases (which we are ashamed to say we have now forgotten) and they practised their English on us. The toilet was the most disgusting think we have ever seen. We felt that we needed to mention it because it really was that grim, however we don't want to harp on too much about toilets because we feel that is the main topic in most of our blogs and don't want to lower the tone too much! Other than the toilet, the experience was better than we expected. There aren't any showers, just two baisins that the entire carriage have to share which Matt braved to brush his teeth and wash his face. Unfortunately that was also next to the smoking area so he got smoked on whilst doing this - pretty pointless really! Lights went out in the whole train at 10.30pm so we didn't have a choice but to go to sleep! Matt got the top bunk as it had storage space at the end and he could stretch out and Holly got the middle bunk. The beds were clean and the train didn't rock about too much so it would have been a pleasant sleeping experience, however one of the people we were sharing with snored the entire night and it woke us both up. Unfortunately our fetching pink earplugs (courtesy of Vicks!) don't work very well and didn't block out his monotonous noise so we had a miserable night. We arrived at Xi'an at 8.30am and felt a little worse for wear. We were both pining a shower and a proper toilet and most of all... a bed!

When we got to Xi'an Train Station we followed our guide across the street to a really plush hotel - we were completely gobsmacked! We thought it might be a mistake but no... we are actually staying there! It's a 3* hotel and very clean and most welcome after the sleeper train experience! The room is massive! There is a huge double bed with clean sheets, a lovely shower room and a proper shower that actually works! We were so relieved and jumped in straight away, ahhhhh it felt good!

After showering we went down to the lobby to meet our group and were greeted with an 'English Breakfast' which cost us two pounds fifty and consisted of some strange sort of sausage and salami (not good) toast (good) a fried egg, English tea (sooooo good!) coffee (even better!) and a weird victoria sponge cake which we weren't really sure of but ate it anyway. Fuelled up and ready to go, we went for an orientation walk of Xi'an which was to be our home for 2 and a half days. We took a local bus for 10p each in to the city centre which was an experience in itself really as it nearly took out several people and nearly crashed in to about 100 cars. Driving in China makes driving in Dubai look almost normal - there is no road etiquette what so ever - everyone just does what they like and crossing the road is a complete death wish. They have attempted to put crossings in (e.g. red man stop, green man go) however the cars ignore this and just drive towards you at full speed so you have to dash everywhere in a mad panic. Most roads seem to have subways though so we tend to take them as we fear for our lives otherwise!

Xi'an is a pretty nice city. It's a good contrast to Beijing which is huge and easy to get lost in - this place is much smaller and easier to navigate. Our guide took us through a street called 'Culture Street' which has some amazing street food which is really cheap - we've uploaded some photos so you can see what we mean. There's loads of cute little markets to browse through and things to see. You really feel like you are in China here, it has a much more authentic feel to it however you're never in danger of feeling too cultured: there's always a McDonalds or a KFC nearby!

After walking through Culture Street we saw some other sights of the city including the famous Bell Tower in which the city is built around. You can climb it but it's more money that we don't want to spend so we just admired it from below. There is a large Muslim community in Xi'an and they actually have a section called the Muslim Quarter which we wandered through. There were more street markets here and food stalls to look at including very appitising chickens foot and other animal parts that we weren't too sure of! After having a look we all split up in to smaller groups and just wandered around the city. Everyone was feeling a bit tired from the train journey and there's a real lack of coffee shops/bars for you to just go and sit down in so you find yourself wandering the streets a bit! There are some Starbucks but it's so expensive to get a cup of coffee that we are trying to hold back! We visited the 'Great Mosque' which was quite nice, apparently it's one of the oldest mosques in China and it was very peaceful and serene walking around the gardens.

The weather in Xi'an is much milder than Beijing, we're still wearing coats but not needing the thermals which is a good thing. At the end of the day we met up with the rest of the group for a 'group dinner' where our guide ordered some local food for us to try. It is now the end of Chinese New Year (15 days) and it is the end of the 'Lantern Festival' - everywhere we have been there have been lovely red lanterns hanging and we originally thought that was just China, but it turns out that they hang them for 15 days after Chinese New Year. It was quite lucky to be in China whilst the festival was coming to an end, however we did feel as if we were in a war zone as there were so many fireworks going off all over the place - they even set them off in the middle of the street! Our guide also bought us some sweet dumplings which you can only buy during the festival and they come all flourey (they look like small round snowballs!) and you boil them and eat them. Matt loved them - one type tasted like peanut butter so he devoured as many as he could!

After dinner we were all so tired that we just went back to the hotel. The comfy bed and the hot shower were calling! We stopped off at a supermarket to just buy some bits for the next day - all the food in the supermarkets is pretty unhealthy, you occasionally find fruit but really need to search to find a good piece that isn't bruised. All the other things are biscuits and sweets so it gets frustrating when you just want to buy some simple bread and jam to have in the morning! Hopefully when we get to Shanghai it will be easier to buy some simple western food. We don't want to sound ignorant saying things like that but eating Chinese food three times a day really doesn't make you feel good if you're not used to it and we've both had stomach cramps and felt a bit sick so we're trying to space it out a bit!