We arrived at Xi'an (pronounced shee-an) around 7am after sleeping on the train with our noses on the ceiling (at one point I thought I had fused with the light). Almost like magic a hostel rep started to talk to me so I told him to b***** off, then once I realised his hostel was the one we actually wanted, I had to do some groundwork. The hostel was perfect, located just by the 'Bell Tower' in the centre of Xi-an. It had loads of facilities including free pool, internet and the bedrooms were like hotel bedrooms. Before I knew it I had agreed to join a tour that very morning to the Terracotta Warriors that were discovered near Xi'an in 1974 (known locally as the 8th wonder of the world) Ant did not come as he had seen them last year and did the sensible thing and went to catch up on sleep. I joined an English couple, an Australian couple and a Lebanese couple. In typical China fashion the one day tour had plenty of 'hidden stops enroute to the Warriors'. Firstly we stopped at a village that was 6000 years old and took some photos of human remains and foundations (nice jolly way to start the day). Then we went to a pottery and furnature factory to see how they make terracotta warriors for souvenirs, followed by table painting etc. By this time we were all getting a bit twitchy saying we had come to see the warriors not go on an industrial tour. We then went to a silk factory to see how silk worms produce silk which is processed and then used to make duvets and table runners. I got told off for not remembering the 3 ways of identifying genuine silk during the test at the end, so I was back of the class... We then had lunch and got to the Terracotta Warriors around 2pm. They were incredible, but I had got to the stage where I had seen one I had seen them all and started to run around the 3 main pits. We had a good laugh and then headed back to Xi'an. That night we stayed in the hostel which seemed to contain the entire expat community due to cheap beer and a lively environment - we played pool, table footy, darts and had a good night. The next morning it was a bit dull, but we decided to go to the city wall (it is around 40 feet wide at the top) that still surrounds Xi'an and hire some bikes to ride around it. We asked a fellow traveller 'Mel' to join us, he was still feeling a bit rough from the night before. The bikes we hired were probably built with the wall several hundred years ago. We burned around the wall for an hour and a half and only ran over 6 locals, which was good going. The rest of the day we spend wondering around the shops and sights in Xi'an. I went on a crusade to buy a rubber chest expander as I don't want to end up with a travellers gut (everything is already starting to sag...) and I already have man boobs, however the language barrier and my acting struggled to get across rubber chest expander. In the end I gave up and decided to start doing press ups every day. Given the quality of food and price in the hostel we stayed there all night. We also managed to buy tickets on the overnight train to Chengdu in the Sichuan province, south-west of Xi'an. Our final day in Xi'an, we woke to the most annoying melody we have ever heard, it was the road-sweeping vehicles that sound even more irritating the ice-cream vans, except they hang around longer. Haunted by my lack of success getting any exercise equipment the previous day, I decided to go for a run around Xi'an. There was a lot of pointing and sniggering seeing a westener walk along the street in Ron Hills. I ran around the outside of the wall after nearly getting knocked down by a push bike. It was amazing to see all the locals doing Tai-chi in the parks and OAPs on wooden roller-powered exercise machines. They were also playing badminton, table tennis and various other wierd activities. When I got back we packed and spent the rest of the day hanging around the hostel in anicipation of the overnight train to Chengdu.