Watching the sunset in Xi'án

Xi'án is a 20 hour journey on the overnight train or a 9hr journey on the high speed train, we wanted to opt for the cheaper option and hard sleeper is not really too bad at all... but unfortunately it was hard seats only. Having heard from at least 5 others of the sleepless discomfort of the hard seat we had whimped out and gone for the day train.

Xi'án is a great place! I think the blue skies may perhaps have helped sway me towards it, or perhaps it was the Starbucks on the corner - i'm not sure but we spent a few days exploring and sampling a few local dishes.
One fairly entertaining moment here, was when we tried to stop for lunch and struggled to find any menus with pictures. Pictures sometimes help when ordering.. and sometimes you still have no idea what you are getting. But no pictures and several lines of Chinese characters leads to option 3... try to see what someone else is eating and try the rather unsubtle point and gesturing at another persons dinner! However, before we even got that far the lady in the little place arrived with a bowl and a bread type thing for each of us, clearly there was no need to order here? We had to break the bread up into pieces, place the bread in the bowl and then watched as they were whisked away. A few minutes later a sort of noodle soup returns - it turns out we were tucking into the local specialty yangrou paomo! A good result :)

After lunch we head out to find the Old City walls. They forms a fairly imposing perimeter and were first built to protect the city in 1370. They are 12 meters high and  an impressive 14km long, you can walk around the top, but seeing as how they are about the width of a main road you can cycle! So, just prior to sunset I stole (rented) a bike and set off with my camera to  circumnavigate the walls - watching the sunset from the wall was beautiful! After sunset however things do get a little more tricky, especially as the bike had no lights and a number of other cyclists going the other direction kept appearing out of the darkness. 

Having negotiated our way on to the train to Chongqing we had just one more day to explore. Xi'án is the home of the Terracotta Warriors. We decided that this would be a good last day and that there would be plenty of time to visit them and make it back in time for the train. Unfortunately, this was also the day of some very big anti Japanese demonstrations. Road were closed, hundreds of Chinese marched waving flags and pictures of Mao whilst chanting loudly. This made things a bit tricky. However, we hailed a motor tricycle and weaved through the traffic and made it to the bus to the Warriors! The Terracotta Warriors are impressive, I took a few photos (as usual!) and although I quite liked the idea of taking one away with me found that my bag is already too heavy!