Xi'an

We made it through the epic 15 hour journey from Shanghai to Xi'an, but to be honest we spent almost all of it fast asleep on the comfy soft sleeper beds. Its a very civilised way to travel, even if your cabin mates are two very snorey Chinese chaps (for once even my snoring was put to shame, these guys taught me a thing or two.) Other than that the train wasn't too different from India, the same mad panic about platforms and whether we were getting off at the right stop etc. The people were much quieter and less raucous, in fact our mates called it a night around 10pm, and were snoring for China by 10:30.

Xi'an (which we now know is pronounced She'an, after a scary run in with the lady at the Shanghai train ticket office...) has definitely picked up our spirits after the disappointment of the building site we came from. The first site that greats you from the station is the north side of the huge wall that encloses the city - apparently you can hire a bike and cycle around the wall, ace. The city inside the walls seems a little more personal than the huge roads in Shanghai, and its much easier to just stroll around taking in the sights.

We are staying in a hostel called Hang Tan, about 500m away from the Bell Tower in the centre of the town. Its another proper hostel, with peoples signatures and doodles all over the walls, and a really nice cafe-bar full of clutter and interesting people. We've signed up for the uber tourist trip to see the Terracotta army tomorrow, and to see the Tang Dynasty show on Friday night. We are both pretty excited about tomorrow, these big old epic touristy days maybe a little predictable but so far they haven't disappointed.

Now for some photos, here are some we've just uploaded from Shanghai. The first is a classic geek tourist shot; me with the worlds only commercial maglev train.



This is the central shopping street that runs for a good mile or so through the centre, there were about 7 Maccy D's, KFCs and Pizza Huts alone...



This is Alex enjoying a ten quid (slightly over budget!!) mojito at the worlds highest bar, so much for sticking to the cheap beers =)



And finally, a couple from many pictures from the boat ride, the views were absolutely brilliant.





And thats about it, will upload some Xi'an pictures, hopefully with some of the little pottery chaps, tomorrow...