30/10/2009Day 25 - Xi'an: City Wall, Big Wild Goose PagodaToday we went to look at the Xi'an City wall, which was built to protect the city. Xi'an was once the capital of China as the city was strategically well placed, 2 sides of the city are lined with mountains and another is protected by the Yellow river. The wall is 14km long and watch towers were placed every 120m as the distance for an arrow was 60m, this also helped to protect the city from invaders. On t...

29/10/2009Day 24 - Xi'an: Terracotta Warriors & Hot SpringsLast night we had our own private cabin with Uncle Scott and Aunty Jess. We didn't get much sleep because of the noise and the rocking - but once we took some sleeping tablets it was a little bit better. There was a large English speaking tour group on the train with us and it was comforting to hear so many people speaking the language.Our new tour guide Andrew met us at the train station for a quic...

28/10/2009Day 23 - Beijing: Bird's Nest & Water CubeThis morning we packed our bags as we'll be on our way to Xi'an this evening - I am really excited about going to see the Terracotta warriors.Once we'd checked in our luggage with the friendly concierge it was on the subway to see the National Stadium and Water cube. These stadiums were used in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and it was exciting to see them after seeing them on TV. Dad and I had a race to get fr...

27/10/2009Day 22 - Beijing: Great Wall MutianyuToday we went to the Great Wall again but this time at Mutianyu. It was fantastic!! There was a glass chair lift that carried us up to the wall. It was so beautiful looking down at all of the autumn leaves. When we reached the wall, the view was amazing, we could see for miles and miles. The walk along the wall was pleasant as it was mostly downhill, with a little uphill. We walked along for 1½ hrs until we reach a ...

26/10/2009Day 21 - Beijing: Lama & Confucius Temples and Bell & Drum TowersToday we visited the Lama Temple, which is a temple dedicated to Buddha. It houses a treasury of Buddhist art, including sculptured images of gods, demons and Buddhas, as well as Tibetan-style murals. There were many locals with lots and lots of incense sticks paying their respects to Buddha. The further into the grounds we got the bigger the statues became. The most impressive was...