Sooo... I managed to make it out of Qufu. The staff at the hostel were sooooo lovely! They all came and carried my bags out to the cab for me and waved me off! What loveliness! ...Or maybe after 3 nights they were just dying to get rid of me...! One or t'other! No, they were really nice. I had felt really pants one day (due to the Shanghai disease-thing I had contracted) and so had left my sight-seeing earlier than planned. When I returned to the hostel I decided to get my sword and staff out and head to the courtyard ofr a little twiddle. They saw me (as much as I tried to slide out) and were fascinated to see some bits and to talk about wushu. One of the guys even showed me some of Jet Li's old stuff on line. I didn't know he used to be a wushu performer. His stuff was lightning quick. a.m.a.z.i.n.g! I am digressing...Back to the point: I had a short hard-sleeper late-night train ride to Zhengzhou, where I managed to buy my onward tickets to Xi'an in my pigeon Chinese (it wasn't wasy, and was dang hot in that ticket hall...even for 8am! Phewf. I looked like a drowned rat. Again. Hmmm) and chillax a bit before the arrival of the Shan Clan. It was so nice to see them and it didn't feel like I'd been away from them for a month at all! Straight back to the usual banter! Yay! We were seven in total for the adventures ahead. We had a bit of trouble getting to the temple itself. Somehow we had managed to book ourselves on an everlasting tour AROUND Shaolin and it's "scenic spots". In vain we tried to communicate our need to get purely and simply to the temple ASAP, and our desire NOT to go and see other temples, mountains, shops, restaurants and tourist traps. *sigh* Our "guide" was a super nosey parker and wanted to know too much of our business...so after 20 mins of arduous chit-chat, we did a runner and squeezed all seven of us, and our luggage into a cab. It was cosy. Sadly, we did this in such a hurry, that I left my beloved Huang Shan paintings on the coach, AND all my food supplies. Nooooooooo! Devastation! So I was souvenir-less and worse still...h.u.n.g.r.y. Oh well. Hopefully someone picked them up and has treasured them. The paintings that is...not the peanuts and bread rolls! We FINALLY arrived at the main entrance to the temple...and a storm unleashed. Thunder, lightning and big, fat rain droplets. It was nice and cooling after the heat of the day. Mini Master Wei and a friend came to fetch us...in the rain. I was well impressed, cos these Shaolin types really hate the rain. (If ever it did fall at the Shan, our masters used to sprint through it, covering their heads. It's not like they had any hair or anything! It was very amusing to watch). I call him mini Master Wei, cos he is my Master's lil' bro. A bonafide shaolin monk and a member of the performance team. I later learned that he had come back from Beijing and taken time out of his super hectic schedule (he is putting the finishing touches to the performance they are doing for the Olympics) to come and welcome us and show us around! What a legend! He got us into the complex free of charge, helped us to find discounted accomodation in the Shaolin village (i.e. onsite) AND he treated us to dinner, AND he did a special "Kung fu tea ceremony" for us in mine and Nomi's room that evening. I had not yet had a tea ceremony, and so this one was extra special. The next day, we got up early and Mini Wei came to get us, and delivered a Shaolin breakfast to us. The bread-thing they eat is truly scrumptious! He then showed us round the temple and explained what was what (his English was pretty good and he tried so hard. We like!). He showed us the various halls and statues; pointed out the trees with holes in them (which are the result of many years of FINGER CONDITIONING that the monks have done on them. OMG); showed us the hall with dents in the ground (which are the result of years and years of training and stamping from the monks); showed us the stele-creature-turtle-thing with a big hole in its head (as a result of hard qi gong practice...ooer!) and much much more. He took us to the Pagoda forest, where we had pics taken and then....piece de resistance...we were invited to EAT LUNCH WITH THE SHAOLIN MONKS! Oh my life! That has got to be my highlight. You just can't do that as a tourist. It was so humbling. And mighty tasty, I might add. We had that yummy bread again, and steamed buns, and rice, and celery, and chillies and stuff cooked in a tasty broth. I was stuffed afterwards. It was a fantastic experience. You have to eat in silence. And of course the younger monks were wondering what 7 lawai were doing in the dining hall...hehe. In the afternoon, he took us up the local mountain to the Dharma cave (v. v. v. important figure in the history of Shaolin) and to the peak, where we chilled and took even more pics....and sweated a lot. I was laughing at myself regarding the sweat-factor, cos the monks RUN up this peak EVERYDAY and come down on their hands and feet, EVERYDAY. And there was I, puffing and panting and dripping with sweat. Hehe. Just goes to show how mazing they are. Apparently, they have to make the ascent in 30 mins, and the descent in 30 mins too. It's no walk in the park, believe me! 4km in total from the temple to the summit. (Of course, that's not 4km vertically up...there some relatively flat bits at the start...to get to the base ans stuff...but it's still a high peak). Hats off to them! It's a beautiful view from up there though. Truly delicious! Testimony to how awesome mini Wei is...he even sorted out getting me from the temple at 5am the following morning to the bus station in Dengfeng, from where I would be put on a bus to the train station in Zhengzhou, from where my train was due to leave for Xi'an at 9am. He came with me in the car to Dengfeng, stopped a departing bus in its tracks to get me on it, and because the bus didn't actually go to the train station, mini Wei arranged that 2 ladies on that bus would get me there (via public bus and walking). What a nice chap! (And what nice ladies too). I must write that man a letter. I will never forget his kindness nor his hospitality. And I shall certainly be looking out for him at the Olympics! Trip of a lifetime. A.w.e.s.o.m.e. So now I am in Xi'an with Mummy! We arrived pretty much at the same time and without incident! It's so nice to see her, and we're staying at a beautiful hostel within the city walls. Even mum approves ;) So it must be good. We've been to see the famous Terracotta Warriors, and we did it independently. I had heard mixed reviews about the unearthed guardians, and went with an open mind. I must say I was super impressed...they are awesome, if not a little unnerving! And you can get closer than you think. They expect to eventually uncover over 6000 of them. Ooer! That Emperor Qin whatshisname was a crazy Larry! We've also checked out the Muslim Quarter and the Great Mosque, which were interesting, if not a little bizarre. We had a tea ceremony in a traditional Ming and Tang dynasty house too (and didn't get ripped off...which has to be a first). AND, today we went to see some Giant Pandas! They really aren't as giant as I had thought. In fact, they're pretty small. But they are soooo cute! I was surprised to see that their grip was very human like... It was at a rehabilitation centre / breeding centre (I couldn't quite work out which) and we saw between 4 and 5 of them. Sadly, we couldn't get all that close, and there were lots of iron bars about and a little too much concrete for my liking. But overall, the bears looked healthy...if a little bored! We also got to see the smaller red pandas (very funny and lazy!), golden monkeys (these looked SUPER bored). They have long hair on their backs and blue faces. I liked them! We saw eagles, and owls and other monkeys and birds and a LEOPARD. He was pretty tiny too, but noisy, so at that point, I was pretty pleased that we were separated by bars! I would quite like to bring a panda homw\e with us. We'll see what we can do! Hehe. Tomorrow we're headed back to Henan (from whence I have come) to visit the Luoyang caves...Very much looking forward to that! Only 14 days left in Chinaland! Nooo! It doesn't quite seem real! Had better get off this and get sightseeing! Hope y'all well and smiley and not working too hard! Much lovings xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx