After 3 fab days in Beijing and covering off 2 of China's Big 3 sights, we headed to Xi'an on an overnight train to make it a hat-trick with the Terracotta Warriors! We boarded the night train, confident in the Lonely Planet's description of a "Soft Sleeper" as "pretty luxurious"... i'm not sure i'd go that far, but the beds were ok and but for the fact that one of the chinese blokes in our room of 4 bunks snored like a f*cking hippo, we would probably have had a decent night's sleep! Top tip for next time... pay for all 4 beds, even if you're only using two... the 70 quid would be well spent! So we arrived in Xian in the early hours, pretty knacked, but in a determined mood to see the Warriors before fatigue set in, so after a quick shower at the hotel (they let us check in at 7.30am, hilarious!), we grabbed a taxi to the warriors... a private taxi which would've stayed with us all day for 25 quid if it hasdn't been so miserable and we were tired after the Warriors and we elected to head back to the hotel!

The Terracotta Warriors were just fab. Again, like the great wall, it's all a bit surreal and you can't get your head round what they were thinking when the bloke said... "i tell you what, when i die, i'd very much like for you to nake about 10,000 life-size replicas of my soldiers, paint them, give them all different features and costumes and weapons, then stand them in battle formation in corridors of mud 2.5 metres wide, put a wooden cover over it all... and then bury them in mud, so that no one knows they're there!!!" Insane...

That said, it was amazing to behold and after a nice walk along Dong Daije to see the Bell Tower last night, we grabbed a flight to Shanghai this morning and are set for 3 days here and hopefully the weather will pick up as it's raining as i type!

Just a word of note... Rachel is struggling with her current film-star-like status as we wander the streets and she is eye-balled and looked up and down at every turn! Her patience is wearing thin with the random photo taking and giggling and pointing... i'm hoping i don't have to step in and prevent her from inflicting physical harm to anyone, as they just mean wel;l and probably never get to see females over 5 ft 3 with long blonde hair!