Due to timings Xi'an was always going to be a bit whistlestop but things were made a little worse by the pollution. On the drive to the airport from Chengdu we were lucky if we could see one car ahead. The countless number of red lettering next to flight numbers on the departures board spelt a few hours delay while China tries to reshuffle flights. This was made slightly worse by the fact this was the period for China's mass migration. Children visit their families at home for new year meaning up to 1.2 billion people are on the move around China. Its logistically crazy but somehow they manage it. We were pretty luckily as only 3 hours delayed but that took our time in the airport up to 6 hours. Boring!!! Although they fed us & it was warm so that was a bonus.

The flight finally left but after negotiating a taxi to the hostel it was too late to do anything productive. The hostel itself was stunning, voted in the top 10 most spectacular hostels in the world we were not disappointed with the room or surrounds. The courtyards were beautiful & the circular arches made it really pretty. The bar was lovely & warm courtesy of their coal fire.

The next day we were heading to see the terracotta warriors. A simple bus journey we thought! Simple....china....not possible.

We couldn't find the number bus we were told takes us there. In the end we saw a bus with terracotta warriors printed on the side. It wasnt the number we'd been given but we figured it would get us there. As we were dropped at the roadside about an hour later we still weren't 100% we were in the right place but walked down the slope through a deserted ghost town. There were bars, shops & restaurants but everything was closed. It was really weird. Eventually we found the ticket office so we followed the few people we did see up to the pits.

The warriors themselves are pretty cool, they're people height so when you think of how many we made & the archaeological discovery made here its quite impressive. The few they had removed to have behind glass were great to look at in detail as the pits themselves required a good zoom. There are currently 3 pits so we walked around those & the exhibition hall where other archaeological finds are on display. The effort this guy went to to create this buried world was quite something.

When we had seen everything there we walked back up to the road in the hope we could flag the same bus down as we had no timetable but they seemed to be seemed to be pretty frequent. Just as we reached the top of the slip road a bus came past, slowed down and lady hung out of the door shouting 'Xi'an'. It wasnt the same company but we figured it would get us to our destination. For 8RMB (about 80p) it did exactly that and dropped us back by the train station.

Xi'an centre is surrounded by a tall city wall on each side. At 40ft high and 60ft deep it's very impressive. We took a walk through town via the Bell Tower to get to the south gate which is where we were told you could hire bikes to cycle the top of the wall. The wall itself is 13.7km long to go all the way around. It is surrounded by a moat and its lit up in the evening with lanterns along the top and looks pretty spectacular.

We hired the bikes, Sy & I went for a tandem as he had never ridden one & the three of us set off. It was peaceful up there and nice to ride along this ancient wall seeing modern skyscrapers along the way but also the older traditional temples & rooftops. Stopping for plenty of photos we realised that we were probably the last ones out on bikes. By the time we'd got half way round the time limit was fast approaching to return the bikes. The sun set and the lights came on as we pushed forward. We all held our breath as we passed a lovely chimney churning out s*** into the atmosphere. We finally got to the bike place with barely a minute to spare, we (well I for sure) were exhausted and decided to get a taxi home as our legs weren't working anymore. The temperature was getting colder but we settled into the bar for the night and had a little Chinese feast at the hostel. The food was really good. We woke up the next morning and as I poked my head out of the door I saw snow! It had snowed and settled overnight. The hostel looked even more beautiful than it did before with snow on top of the sculptures & along the paths.

We were off again to the airport, this time up north!!