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Other entries in Xi'an

Xi'an

Now lets get one thing straight.This place is not pronounced Xiyan..its not pronouced Zyon. Its pronounced...She-ann.
With five minites to spare,were dropped off by the taxi at Shanghai station and look at the crowed of people waiting to get tickets.Theres no way were gona make it on time to the train.
Miami richard spots an english speaking ticket booth and no one cueing! After get the last 3 hard bed tickets for the train..we make it with a minite to spare.Hard beds are not cool..Six beds to a compartment and you can get anyone in there.We find out that our beds are right on the top..level with the luggage and no head room. As Luck would have it, our companions in the cabin for this trip are two girls heading home from work.We spend the rest of the time talking in broken English(we good at that now!)and people watching.
Then spend the rest of our journey in the resturant cart talking to the chinese,who find us very entertaining..especially after trying there 75% rice wine.The nights sleep was not good..with one parculer guy who snored like a freight train.
In the morning we wake up to snow outside and its getting cooler again.Just when we were getting use to the Shanghai heat!
The train arrives at Xi'an at 8am and the overhead wall board is tell us its -5 outside....Great!
The taxi takes us through the surrounding wall of the city to our new home..Dragon town youth hostel.Its a great place..Very chinese with its 3 little court yards dressed with lantans and fancy furniture.
Two pounds eighty a night seems good and the bar down stairs seems cheap to..Around 70p a bottle.
Now the history....
The wall surrounding the city was built in the first emperor of the ming dynasty. Its rectangle in shape and covers 14km.The wall is as thick(12) as it is high(12m)..Its HUGE. You can walk on top of the wall and walk the hole 14km if you want or higher a claped out push bike that will rattle itself to death.It has some fantastic towers which you can explore!
In the evening we went to see the Drum tower.Sun up and Sun down is when they beat the hell out of these big drums suspended on top of the tower.Theres a great muslim market behind the tower selling everything from North face clothing to Rat on a stick..yum.
Theres the biggest fountain display in asia here in Xi'an.Its starts at 8pm and has the large goose pogonda in the back ground all light up.
The night life in this little city is not bad.The bar in the hostel is touch and go weather it gets full so the place recommended to us is called 1+1.Good music and expensive drinks(25yuan,1.60p)the place rocks every day and closes at 4am.
Paddy had pulled...Miami richard had pulled and Rob and Noh( chap from southport and a girl from Israil) went home. sitting there by my self was not my idea of a good time..and paddy said he wasn't coming home..O.k..i'm off as i've only got 10minites before the hostel shuts.Get outside and they've got these motorbike Taxi's waiting on the pavement.Big oath on the back of a 125 scooter?!..you could see the panic in the taxi riders face.After 7 or 8 beers it's not the best thing to do..with no crash helmet..but it was the best thing ever!..Except when i gave him the thumbs up and he turned around facing me..then a car pulled out..that soberd me up.
Its been diffcault to get up, but there was Two things we could not miss out on.First was the Army of terracotta warriors.Up at a very unhealthy 8am to get our Truck there.This is a must for anyone in central China. Found in 1974 by a farmer digging a well,he came across some fragments of terracotta.In 1976 they found the other two sites close by. 28 years later..the area that has been dug is huge. The 3 pits have had plane hanger like buildings put over them and theres a museum in the middle. 6000 warriors are on display and takes all day to get around.Its a great place and cheered me up as i'd lost my ring on the way to the warriors.I was so pissed off..more than when i lost my clothes in Beijing.the ring came from Byrain and had centimental value.Everyone went to the local museum and i stayed on the truck.Got bored..so i looked around the local shops..when this guy approcess me and asks what im looking for? I tell him a 'ring'.He tells me he'll be 5 minites..jumps in a taxi..and hes off? I'm not in the mood for this and carry on shopping.5 minites later he turns up in the taxi with a woman holding a box of rings! Not one would fit over my little finger..there made for chinese people.
Next day we went to the panda reserve out in the poorest area in China.
It was still more like a zoo than a reserve but the animals were i good health...well..better than paddy and me. The pandas did nothing but sleep as its that time of year but we were lucky to feed one when the keepers were't looking.They had a brown bear there which we feed snow balls to. The hole journey there and back was bad..were talking off the betten track.
By the last day the smog had come down like pea soup..we could see nothing.This was much worse than Beijing and Shanghai.Paddy by now was really suffering.Coughing all the time and could not get out of bed. So i went for that push bike ride on the wall.With a big oath on it the poor thing survived....just.With nothing to see..coss of the smog..i headed back for our last night at the hostel.We talk about our plan to get out of the country as our visa's expire in three days and need to head to the nearest boarder. Its been desided that Hong Kong is the place to go as its day and a half away and its hot!!

First thing in the morning we grabed a taxi for the train station and got a ticket for Hong Kong, having to change at Guongzho then on to Kowloon..Hong Kong!!

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