On the 7th we woke up feeling rather worse for ware after our night out at Soho, Shanghai but were keen to get on our next night train, sleep, then see the next city on our trip. This would have been made a whole lot less stressful if my watch hadn't decided to slow down randomly for the only 2 hours I needed it in action. We had to check out by 12 and at 10 Mairi and I decided to have a bit more of a nap and then to get up and pack. I kept checking my watch (which was moving) whilst I marvelled at how slow time was going when usually it whizzes by when you want a nap. At 10:20 (according to my watch) there was a knock on the door and hauling myself out of bed, I was met by Emma at the door telling me that it was 5 to 12. I laughed this off until I actually checked my phone and realised that sadly I was very mistaken. With Mairi unable to stop laughing we ran around like things possessed to get all our stuff which was strewn around the room: socks in the shower, laundry on the curtain rails and a lot of mess from the previous night to sort out! We checked out at 12:10 which we were pretty impressed with and then some of us set out for McDonald's to ease off the previous night. I need to point out here that since correcting my watch it has not missed a single minute or slowed down by a second..! That evening we caught the train to Xi'an and slept pretty much from the moment we got on the train apart from a quick wake up call from Vivian so we could present Maria, who's birthday it was, with her cake and sing to her. This time the train had no walls whatsoever so it felt like sleeping in a prison corridor with a zillion other Chinese groups all cracking their pumpkin seeds, cooking pot noodles and blasting Chinese opera music..!

When we arrived in Xi'an yesterday morning we checked in at our hotel and then went for a wonder around the city to get a feel for it. It's a lovely city which used to be the capital city for the Tang dynasty with a great big ancient wall which is completely preserved surrounding the old city. That afternoon we climbed up to the wall and rented bikes to cycle the 13km perimeter. I really wanted to ride a tandem bike so was delighted when Vivian agreed to hire one with me. Unfortunately it wasn't until we were on the bike that she informed me that 1. She was scared of cycling and didn't like bikes and 2. She'd never ridden on a tandem before..great combination! She insisted I went in front and after a few hair raising wobbles and a crash into some bikes next to us we got going. The wall is very well preserved on the outside but the top itself is covered in potholes, hills, steep declines and basic horrors on a poor quality tandem bike. Vivian was horrified and shrieked on every bump and every decline and I had to concentrate to hard to avoid the worst bits. To take her mind off the ride I decided to quiz her on Chinese history and learnt a lot whilst peddling my hardest (according to the others she wasn't contributing much) to get us around the wall. It was a beautiful afternoon though and we finished hot but happy after our beautiful cycle. I don't think Vivian will try a tandem again though..oops! That evening we had a scrummy meal including pigs trotters which are disgusting but supposed to be very good for the skin before piling into bed.

This morning we were woken up by the morning exercises of the school children next to our hotel. It was great fun and all watching them all lined up in the playground clapping and marching to the cheeses music but we really wanted to sleep :) a rather depleted group of 5 of us left at 9 to catch the bus to the pagoda in the other part of town. There are loads of different stories attached to this pagoda and in 2008 an earthquake made it a bit skew whiff. It was completed in AD 652 to house the buddhist sutras brought over from india. It also featured in 'journey to the west' which I've never heard but it's apparently very popular :) It was a lovely day and although we didn't go in the pagoda we enjoyed snapping pics in the garden surrounding it and watching the various tai chi and dance groups having a whale of a time as they had done in the temple of heaven in Beijing. We then went to the natural history museum of xi'an where we read all about the golden age of the rang dynasty when they united china, stabilised the economy and basically made the country very prosperous by encouraging the silk trade and relations with the west.

We then set off back to the old city to have some very cheap local noodles for £1.30 which were delicious (even though they were fat noodles that I usually despise!) and then walked to the Muslim quarter of the city. We saw the 14 century bell tower which originally held a large bell which was rung at dawn, then it's alter ego the drum tower where the bell was rung to mark nightfall. We then waked to the Muslim quarter where there's a huge bazaar that sells absolutely every souvenir and fake you can imagine!! I wish I'd managed to get my souvenir shopping done but its so exhausting constantly haggling prices down and begging for student rates and then getting abuse when they settle for your tiny price when you only said it to get rid of them!! Oh well I managed to get a hoody as its so cold here which is always useful and managed to prise myself away so I didn't buy any tat..however tempting it always is!

We're now back in the hotel with plans to go out for dinner and possibly some karaoke afterwards..we're all so exhausted it will be a miracle if we make it and terracotta warrior time tomorrow! :) then night train to Yangzhou..we don't stop!

Lots of love, Flo x x x