Xi'an, China

17.11.11 - After an uneventful overnight journey, we arrived into Xi'An at 7am and were met at the station by staff from our hostel - 7 Sages, for the short walk back. Located only a few hundred metres from the train station, the hostel was in a traditional courtyard setting - and apparently is one of the Top 10 Hostels in the World (according to Hostelling International). Our room was lovely, and the courtyards and communal areas were great. We even had a few ping pong tables to brush up our skills.

After checking in and grabbing some breakfast we decided to head down town. Chris managed to grab himself an Ipod Shuffle for only £3 (genuine....yeah right!). We head to the Muslim Quarter, known for good street food and shopping. We found a cool place selling dumplings and noodles, the lady was very pleased when we asked for more chilli, and as the only westerners in the shop, we provided entertainment for the other diners around us as we ate. We found the Mosque, but it was under renovations with lots of scaffolding, so we decided to skip it. Later that day we made our way back to 7 Sages and played a few rounds of table tennis in the courtyard, grabbed some drinks and dinner nearby and called it a day.

18.11.11 - Today we made our way our to see the Terracotta Warriors - what most people come to Xi'an to see. We caught the local bus out there and arrived about 10:30. There is a good museum on the right as you enter, which we checked out for about an hour - taking in a lot of the history and culture surrounding the warriors and how they were uncovered. Afterwards, there are 3 pits to view. We viewed them 2,3,1 - as apparently this is the best order to view.

Pit 2 was quite large, many warriors uncovered but a lot of work still in process and plenty of restoration still to be done. There were pit outlines which showed just how many warriors are still under the dirt. Onwards to Pit 3, a much smaller display and again, still a lot of work to be done. They have been working on these pits for many years already, which just shows how slow and painstaking the restoration efforts are. Seeing the state in which the terracotta army has been found - it's like getting 100 jigsaw puzzles, throwing them all into a pit and then trying to work out which pieces belong to which puzzle. Add in the fact that initially, you didn't even know what the puzzle needed to end up looking like - I can only imagine many people have torn their hair out restoring these artefacts!!

Lastly, Pit 1 - the largest and most complete exhibitions of the warriors. Row after row of warriors, horses, carriages etc have been uncovered and slowly glued back together. They stand proudly on display, a small proportion of their original army, but breathtaking none the less. We spent about 30-40 minutes in the pit viewing them from all angles before heading off to get a snack at the canteen.

Unfortunately, shortly after this - I realised that my camera was missing :o( I am not sure when, where, how - but the only thing we could work out was that it was at the canteen area - so either I put it down, or someone nicked it. Either way, it wasn't handed into security, so there was no good honest people around obviously. Such a shame as I had taken plenty of great pics that day - fortunately we still have Chris's photos, so they're not all lost. We also regularly download to the laptop, so only lost 2 days worth of photos - but still, a bad end to what was an otherwise great day.

Chris bought me a magnet of the warriors, hand carved out of clay, while I was stuck at the Security office. It didn't really compensate, but it did at least make me smile. I managed to get some sort of report from them - so will see what the insurance company says.....but not holding any hopes as it isn't really an official police report.

Back at the hostel we played some more table tennis. I think Chris let me win to make me feel better - it kind of worked, everyone likes to win!

Such a shame - will have to go buy another camera at some point now.....oh well, such is life!

19.11.11 - Tonight we have the night train to Chengdu booked for 10pm, leaving us with the whole day to enjoy Xi'an. We wandered back down to the Muslim quarter and had some more street food and watched as they made their delicious street sweets. We seems to be chilling out a little bit at the moment, but it's nice not to be seeing sight after sight, day after day, we're enjoying having a bit of time to relax as well. We checked out some of the shops down town, considered cycling on the walls of the city, but decided against it as the clouds were coming in.

Back at the hostel, we met an Aussie guy who has been living in Xi'an for about 6 months, speaks Chinese, and knew some good places to go for dinner - enough said! We tried some local restaurant that we would definitely have walked past otherwise, paid a pittance for a fantastic meal, then chilled until it was time to catch our train. We had 3 of the 4 beds in our carriage this time, so for once the foreigners outnumbered the poor local guy who got stuck with us! A refreshing change. Onwards to Chengdu, the home of the Giant Pandas!