Hello from Xi'an.

We arrived here early this morning after a sleeper train from Beijing. The train was as comfortable as expected but as it left when it was dark and arrived here at 7am we didn't see any countryside.

It was a bit of a mission this morning organising train tickets. Trains seem to be really popular in China and sell out well in advance, So after a couple hours of wrangling we are now leaving at 6am on the 29th instead of 8pm on the 28th. Not a big difference in time but our orignal plan was to get another sleeper, now we get 16hours during the day of sitting in a chair. Yeah I can hardly wait.

Anyway after that fuss we went to get brunch. Then on to the big wild goose pagoda. Like me many of you have probably never heard of it before - but our hostel practiclly faces it. It was very important when Xi'an was the capital of china - between 1000bc and 800ad. Now it makes a very nice afternoons sight seeing.

From there our friend at the hostel suggested the Shaanxi History Museum - the first free history museum in China. You can't beat a good museum full of old pots and statues. Bit like the British Museum at home but on a smaller scale.

Now we are chilling in the foyer of the hostel.

Speak to you tomorrow

Team P