National Day was our first proper break from teaching, a week long holiday. The name is quite deseptive, I'm not sure which day is National Day but everyone seems to take the week off to celebrate anyway. Its sort of like the Olympics in the UK, everyone is selling little flags while shop windows are awash with red and yellow stars. Teenagers walk around with hammer and sickle flags plastered to their cheeks. Everywhere you turn there is red.

On a related note, there is only one flag that rivals the Chinese flag in terms of popularity. I'm not sure if I have mentioned this before but there are Union Jacks everywhere. Bags, shirts, jeans, shoes, you name it, it have a British flag on it. Now I half expected the American flag to be popular before I came, yet that is hardly anywhere. The funny thing is, you ask people about the flag (I say ask, I mean point and say "ying guo ren, ying guo ren!") and they have absolutley no idea what it means. Its just fashion. I've seen more British flags in my two months here than in 18 years at home. Oh China.

As we were traveling for so long we had to get permission from Mr. Tian. Remember him? He is our leader (official title is Director of English, he is third in command of the school) and took us out to a Banquet on our first day. Alex went along just before we left to say goodbye (I was busy teaching) and was told: "Travel the sometimes, never the always". I like that quote, and I'm not really sure why.

So, off we went. We really, really, really didn't want to miss our train so we got a car to Urumqi train station. 5 hours early. I told you we didn't want to miss it. We worked our way through the system (I won't bore you with details), stuffed ourselves full of food and then embarked on a train journey. Now 5 hours waiting in a train station may seem like a long time to wait. But that is dwarfed by the time on the train.

34 hours.

We spent 34 hours on a train, from Urumqi to Xi'an.

Now, 34 hours is a long time. It's a day, and then more. I don't really know how to convey just how long this journey was. What does one do for this amount of time? First thing was first, we slept. Me and Alex got the top bunks in a 6 bed compartment. That was lucky as it meant we had our own little area to talk and read. When I say little area, I mean it. Chinese trains weren't designed for my 6ft1 body. Still, I eventually found a comfortable position and slept. 8 hours down. Following that me and Alex spent most of the morning reading. I was really conscience about my iPad running out of charge leaving me strandard so I'd brought 'When China Rules The World' by Martin Jaccques along (I must say a brilliant read, quite in contrast to the majority of Western political academics at the moment). Outside the window was one thing: desert. We spent most of our time in Gansu (a long Chinese provience which is disected by a long railway line), and Gansu is really just desert. It's like what most people would think of Mongolia, apart from there are less horses and more oil rigs. At one point we stopped in Zhangye (it was a 34 hour train journey because it stopped everywhere), which meant we were a five minute walk from Dan and Stephen, some fellow volunteers. What I would have done to jump off and go for a cup of tea.

Halfway through. We decided to have lunch in the dinning cart for a change of scenery. The food was overpriced and sub-standard but it was a nice place to sit and the waiting staff were mystified by our presence. It is well known in China that all foreigners are rich, so everytime I do something like travel on the train in a hard bed (although I don't think soft are much better) people are bemused. They honestly just don't get it, why are we not flying? The few Chinese people who I have devulged by income to have been absolutley shocked. Of course everyone asks how much money you make, I've only told a few. In fact when I told Tao Qin (the owner of the local breakfast place and all round nice guy) he added an extra zero to the end of my salary. Wouldn't that be nice?

Anyway, after lunch I decided to give in and play on my iPad, went through some podcasts about the financial crises and the economics of the Cold War (facsinating stuff). Generally just watched the clock tick. Just as it was going dark the scenery began to change, we went trough Langzhou and left Gansu. Finally! Mountains, greenery, the real China! And all in time for it to get dark. Just as I was about to loose the will some small children ran up to me and pointed at my iPad (rich foriegner with his fancy technology). The inevitably happened and I spend 2 hours trying to teach three 6 (ish) year olds how to play Angry Birds. The game that triumphs all language barriers. Kinda. One girl really didn't get it, despite the fact she was wearing Angry Bird shoes. Its just like everyone wearing the British flag, no one knows what it means! She'd never played the game before but had decided these were the shoes she wanted (I have to admit, they were quite cool). I suppose the equilvilant in the Uk is people getting Chinese characters tatooed without knowing there true meaning.

24 hours through. Just one more sleep and Xi'an is around the corner! Apart from I couldn't sleep. It was always going to happen. I lay down in my tiny little bunk and listened to music I don't normally listen to. It took some man talking about the irrationality of consumers to send me off, atleast thats what was playing in the morning when I woke up! I did get some sleep, which was good. At that point me and Alex got by the door (we were not going to be on that train for much longer).

34 hours through. Done. Would I recomend it? Well let's put it this way, I'm going to be travelling to Beijing by train for Spring Festival. Two days on the train. I bet you're all excited to hear my breakdown of that train journey.

So Xi'an. The word is broken up because the vowel sounds don't mix; it's pronounced cee - an. What a trip. Me and Alex spent 7 days there (with 6 nights) which was longer than any other volunteers. Where do I start?

Xi'an itself is an odd little city (I say little, I mean that by its almost the size of London). I affectionatly called it the Brand New Ancient City of Xi'an. Because everything that was ancient and beautiful has been rebuilt in the 90's to be just a little bit higher, a bit more impressive and wheelchair accesible. I'm honestly not exaggerating. The wall that surrounds the city, The wall that defended the ancient capital of China Xi'an was the capital of China for thousands of years before the Manchus conquered and made Beijing the capital, it was closer to Manchuria) was ripped down and rebuilt. It wasn't the evil barbarians from the West who did it, it was China herself. As Martin Jaccques would say "China again adapts" or something along those lines... The city has a very planned feel, certainly compared to Beijing where little backstreets and alleyways were more common. By the end of my time there I felt I knew the city really well. Me and Alex spent a few lunch times wondering the Muslim quarter for street food with the rest eating either noodles or going full western and going to KFC. Xi'an cold noodles are meant to be famous, I couldn't tell you why. And we ate KFC because, well, it's been so long since I've had chips. Now it I can only find an old English pub somewhere with some fat chips, eggs and a gamon steak. Hhmmm.

Xi'an has a fantastic bar street where we went after all the volunteers met up. Staff come out and try and get you to sit in their bar (having Westerners in is a big attraction). Good bit of bargaining before finally settling for the bar with the best atmosphere. Now I met some amazing people on bar street. An Ukrainian-American who was working for one of the many large wind turbine companies I've seen the work of as an mechanical engineer. Three Brazillians living and studying in Shanghai (we had a KFC early in the morning with them). An Swedish guy on his gap year, traveling China like us. Then a couple of other teachers living in Beijing, who had some brilliant stories. An old American couple who were effectively completeing their bucket list. We also made loads of Chinese friends some of which we celebrated a birthdays with. Then my favourite, three Geordies traveling and working, again as engineers. The conversation went like this:

"Hello, nice to see another foreign face. Where are you from?"

"England, and you?"

"Same, England. Up near Newcastle"

"AH WELL ANOTHER GEORDIE IN CHINA. HAVE A SEAT MATE"

Suddenly I found myself talking really geordie. Started saying 'aye', 'champion' and all the rest. It was really funny, especially as my very Southern friend Dan was with me at the time. He had no idea what was going on. It was a very on little moment in my life, but one I enjoyed.

Most days were just spent exploring and sitting in some cafe and talking. We did the Little Goose Pagoda, The Large GOose Pagoda (guess the difference), the drum tower, the bell tower (again, one vital difference) and walked down the busiest street I've ever seen. Like the end of a football match apart from none stop, all day long. And now, the moment you've all been waiting for, We also went to see the Terrocota Warriors.

Now, let me start by saying I think everyone should go and see them, probably. In fact its quite the China experience. Very busy, people will try and sell you anything and everything, no one knows how to queue, cameras and pictures everywhere. The warriors themselves are very cool, there are three chambers (and maybe more which haven't been ripped open yet). There is the big one with 300 or so warriors, a smaller one with 100 and then a certral one with charriots and generals. Its an impressive site, for one man to comand that much party. the story goes that groups of men would get together and try and make the best warrior they could, with the strogest most detailed one being chosen. What is not widely known is that if your warrior wasn't good enough then the emporer would kill you and your family and throw you in an open mass grave. They have would nearby huge pits filled with bones. Emporer Qin, defining ruthless for thousands of years.

Another interesting little fact is that the warriors are markedly not chinese. The Emporer want the strongest army possible inn the after life so many of the warriors resemble the 'barbarians' from the West and the North. They are all 6ft tall, have wide eyes and unusual weapons. I suppose I would make the same choice, if I was picking an army for the afterlife.

Overall the warriors are worth it for the spectical. But honestly, go to Xi'an for more than just the warriors otherwise you may be dissapointed.

Xi'an is a great city, and I had an amazing time there. It was good to get a break from Fukang and teaching. This whole 'living' thing is difficult: choosing washing up soap, preparing and eating three meals a day, cleaning clothes. Who knew? So to get out and just be on holiday was what was needed.

And that all but concludes Xi'an. A fantastic write up from the viewpoint of Dan (that southerner, tut) is up on blogspot. As it is blocked for me I can't directly link you to it but here is his blog:

chinaforayear.wordpress.com

The Xi'an post is somewhere on there.

Thank you for reading. Sorry this is so late, I have been terribly busy and got out of the habbit of writting. I'm planning on get up to date for just after Christmas and before Spring Festival.

S