Because it was impossible to get a train to Xian and we wrote off buses due to safety concerns, we had to fly. It was only an hour and a half journey but it was 4 hours delayed and the airport was so badly organised they never told us anything. We could only hear announcements by our gate so we couldn't wonder off and they didn't say how long we'd been delayed by or what the reason was. After an hour and a half delay we boarded the plane but the plan just sat there for a further 3 and a half hours. It was so boring and we ended up getting there at 3am, we were exhausted!

The only reason that tourists go to Xian is to see the Terracotta Warriors but since we knew this would take most of a day and we wanted to sort out onward travel as soon as poss we left it until last and did the rest of Xian first so I will explain about the warriors later. There were some things for tourists to do in Xian but I think the highlight for me was finding Walmart! Ok so it's less a tourist attraction and more a giant American chain store but actually visiting foreign supermarkets is really cool and this one was enormous. Even though it's American you wouldn't tell by going inside because of course it's full of crazy Chinese stuff. It was great for our budget and we often bought our meals from there.

Apart from that there's also a bell tower and drum tower which was used in ancient times for some sort of warning system or celebration, I forget its purpose it was so hot that day I couldn't concentrate on it. We also visited what I have nicknamed the not-so-great-wall-of-China. This is an ancient wall that was built all around the old city for protection and we were able to climb this and walk around the top. It wasn't worth the money we paid to go up it.

To be honest most of our time was taken up trying to sort out our onward travel. It was massively stressful and time-consuming and turned out to be the same story all over China. In the end our only option was to get black market train tickets through our hostel and pay a huge commission but it was still cheaper than flying. They told us the day before we were due to leave that we would be booked on the 22:30 train which wasn't ideal but gave us plenty of time to see the warriors and the Muslim quarter during the day. Only the next morning they told us we were booked on the 19:30 train and we needed to be there an hour before! It takes an hour and half to get the terracotta warriors and most of the day to see it so it wasn't ideal.

In order to save money we decided to get to the warriors by public transport. We had to get a bus to the bus station to get another bus. It should have been simple but despite me pointing out the bus stop to Bryan he insisted on going to the one in the other direction and was convinced it was that one. We got off at the end of the line and couldn't understand where the bus station was. I tried to ask directions from Chinese people which didn't go so well. There was a lot of pointing in contradictory directions and we were all talking our own languages even though we knew they couldn't understand us and we couldn't understand them. It took a long time to work out we had taken the bus in the wrong direction and were on the wrong side of the city! As we were pushed for time we tried to get a taxi only most of them flat out refused to take us. Apparently, because they use meters, it is common for them to refuse if the fare is not high enough for them. We eventually made it and got on the bus to see the warriors.

For those of you who have no idea what I'm going on about, basically the first emperor of China (who had a massive ego), as soon he became emperor, he commissioned the building of his tomb. Not content with having just an ordinary tomb, he also needed an entire army built to guard him in the afterlife. This site was discovered by (presumably now very rich) farmers digging a well in 1974 and so far 3 pits containing approximately 8,000 soldiers have been excavated but it seems they have really no idea how many more there may be. Every single, larger-than-human-size, soldier is individual and has its own facial features and hairstyle. They also have other aspects to them to distinguish their ranks including their boots, uniforms and helmets. Pit 1 in particular is really quite an incredible site because it is possible to imagine what the whole thing would have looked like in all its glory as they are mostly still in tact. The detailing is really quite incredible from the ordinary soldiers at the front to the horse drawn chariots and kneeling archers at the back. With the archers that are kneeling you can even see the tread on the bottom of their boots! Most of them were given weapons made of brass but these have mostly been looted after the emperor died. Pits 2 and 3 are in slightly more of a mess since most of the warriors are in pieces or still being uncovered because it is still a work in progress.

Our bus from the warriors returned to Xian at around 5.30. This meant that unfortunately we had no time left to check out the Muslim quarter. I had already walked past the mosque which was exactly the same as every other chinese building we have seen so far so I don't think we missed much there. What I am gutted about missing was the food. Eating has been tough in China since nothing is written in English most of the time you don't know what you're ordering so I have been playing it safe since nearly everything contains pork. It would have been great to eat whatever I wanted at the Muslim quarter but we ran out of time. In fact we only had enough time to grab a taxi back to our hostel. Of course that wasn't easy either because nothing has been working out for us too well recently. It was rush hour and despite there being thousands of taxis in the city they were all being used! We eventually had to haggle down a price of two unscrupulous motorcycle riders who were taking advantage in our hour of need. So we managed to hitch a ride back to our hostel and I had just enough time to jump in the shower before making our way out to the train station. Of course, we couldn't get a taxi back again, not for lack of empty taxis but this time again they refused to take us because of the low fare. Instead we squished ourselves onto a packed bus (in the right direction) with no room to even remove our backpacks. Instead of arriving with an hour to spare we had about 10 minutes before the train took off so it was definitely cutting it fine. But we made it onto a less comfortable hard sleeper cabin to start our 16 hour train journey onto Chengdu.