Xī'ān — Xi'an, China
We set off from Pingyao at 9.30pm and immediately bumped into the Argentian couple we'd met at the Great Wall - they were now full of compliments for the Chinese food having been taken out a couple of days before by a French couple to an amazing restaurant. Prior to that they said the same as us - the food is awful - and they were surviving on cookies and crisps! Was nice to see them, however, they were heading off to their nice soft sleeper while we were being herded to our hard seat by the station staff. This journey was a completely different kettle of fish to our last one - the Chinese family we were sitting with were full of conversation! Although not a single word was in English it was great to chat and share some jokes. They were fascinated with James' height and weight and particularly the weight of his bag! And when they caught a glimpse of our Lonely Planet they were over the moon - It kept them amused for hours! Still zero sleep but good fun. Arriving in Xī'ān we were met by Sasha one of the girls from our hostel and taken back to the most luxurious hostel we could have imagined. After our last hostel it was bliss and felt like a 5* hotel. Having crashed for a few hours and successfully Skyped the family we headed off to the Muslim Quarter for some reputedly great food. The whole area was crazily busy when we arrived and we dived down one of the side alleys to see what was in offer - we had some deep fried beef popadom type pancakes, fried quails eggs on skewers glazed with spicy sauce and some sort of sweet powdered rice with jam and sugar lollipop! We explored the area a little more so we knew where we were going tomorrow and then headed back to the hostel for a chill in the bar and some live music. An early start the next morning as we were braving our first foray on the public buses to the Terracota Warriors! We left the hostel at 7am and bused our way back to the train station before fighting our way through the crowds to find the right bus out of Xī'ān as the army is 40km away from the city. Again we had no idea where we were supposed to get off - but a young Chinese couple adopted us and guided us on our way - however, even they don't seem to know where they were going once we got off. We organised ourselves a guide as we decided we wanted a bit of historical context here and set off to see the warriors! The army is split into 3 main pits and we told our guide we wanted to start with the least impressive first and build up. It's just as well we did as we started at pit 2 - and there were no warriors to be seen! Li-Li, our guide, pointed to the pit and informed us that the warriors hadn't been excavated as they were waiting for the technology to preserve the colours painted on them - so all we could see was a big whole in the ground! However, around the edges were some original warriors on display for us to see the variations in rank and design, as well as the weapons and info on how the pits were constructed. The next area we visited was Pit 3 - the smallest of the pits, however, here we got our first taste of the warriors lined up in their formations with their horses and the spaces where the carriages had once been. Very impressive. Li-Li then took us to the shop to see if we wanted to buy any warrior figures - however, we were quoted Y350 (£35) for one little figure alone and quickly left! We were also shown how to tell the difference between real and fake jade (and tempted to buy some - no thank you) before heading off to the final pit - Pit 1... There are over 6000 warriors in here and the building is huge - like an aircraft hanger! The detail in each individual is amazing and apparently it isn't just the faces that are all unique, even the smallest details like their finger nails are all different. It was amazing to see what they were able to achieve all those years ago. In particular the weapons that they've discovered apparently are so well preserved because they used a chrome coating process on the metal that wasnt invented in Germany and the UK until the 1930's! Thoroughly enjoyed the day here - we slowly made our way back to the bus nibbling on some nice (probably goat!) kebabs. Once we got back we decided to have a wander over to the Great Mosque - however, got totally lost and ended up at the Drum Tower instead. In the past the Bell Tower would ring a giant bell to announce the morning and the Drum Tower would announce the evening. James enjoyed hitting all of the giant drums - although you weren't technically allowed to - and we had some great views of the city. After another wander and finding a nice little restaurant for dinner we headed back to crash. On our final day in Xī'ān we first headed over to the Bell Tower for a traditional music performance, followed by the Great Mosque (we finally found it!) and then a wander down ShuYuanMen, an ancient street, where we perched on the curb side for some lunch (very good food - even if there were a few too many bones in it for James' liking!). It's now the 1st October here the start of the national holiday so we had to allow plenty of time for negotiating the crowds with our bags to the train station - however, we arrived in plenty of time and are now lying in our soft sleeper beds - looking forward to a good nights sleep!!!