Hua shan is one of the things you have to do in Xi'an. The city's most famous and spectacular scenery. Unfortunately it involves an almost deadly climb. When The Lonely Planet describes something as 'fairly strenuous' and 'bottleneck sections can be dangerous,' one does become slightly dubious as to whether or not it's a good idea to confront the 6km climb and reach the 2160m high peak! However, it was only a matter of time until as &#...

The newest addition to Xi'an's multitude of cultural sights! Very artificial but if you arrive expecting fake buildings, man made lakes and every gimmic under the sun (which any canny traveller in China does!) it makes for a good fun day out. I visited during May Festival, which meant the newly opened park was simply a backdrop for an erray of performances and activities i.e. dance shows, lion dancing, puppet shows, fireworks and laser show movies on the ...

This time I got a guided tour from Nicky, one of our volunteers working at the museum and was able to get much more out of the trip than just the initial wow factor. I didn't realise there are 6000 warriors in total, most of which had been uncovered and then covered up again to protect them before they are taken to the warrior hospital where all the thousands of warrior jigsaw pieces are put back together. I also got to hear of the Maesoleum and the stories s...

The highlight of this job is the panda conservation project and sometimes I have the very difficult job of visiting it! The project is set in absolutely stunning scenery, at the base of green mountains dotted with magical countryside huts. The government wrote this area off as 'too poor' for foreigners but in reality a foreigner couldn't see a better side of China than this place! It's a bit of a step trek up the mountains but well worth it. It...

I never expected China to have one of these - a Safari Park! Made a great day trip and again was surrounded by stunning mountain scenery. The actual 'safari' wasn't particuarly memorable. Chinese driving hasn't quite adapted to being slow enough to allow you to see the animals! However, we retraced our steps by foot and got to see quite a lot. Had to walk out of the dancing bear and monkey performance much to the dismay of the Chinese who were lov...