XI'AN, CHINA 3

XI'AN, CHINA 2

GIANT PANDAS, CHINA

WRESTLING PANDAS

Our third excursion was to see the giant pandas at a WWF rescue centre close to Xi'an. The weather was beautiful, in contrast to the previous day, and we were rewarded with a chance to see the pandas outside - instead of inside, behind bars, as they would've been on a hotter day. Most of the 14 giant pandas that now live there, had been orphaned by poachers or rejected by their mothers and rescued by local farmers in the nearby Quinling Mountains, although 2 of them had been bred there. They're amazing looking creatures and we could've watched them all day, especially the 2 play-fighting in the grass. We also got to feed a giant panda bamboo in China... another box ticked!

We visited the rescue centre, followed by lunch, with 4 other Brits - James & Mandy and Angus & Nina - and then we decided to cycle round the Xi'an city wall together that afternoon. We took turns on a tandem bike (another first!), as well as normal bikes and raced each other around the 14km perimeter, taking in 360 degree views of the surrounding city. All good fun, before the two of us prepared for our 16 hour sleeper train to Shanghai...

HUA SHAN, CHINA

STAIRWAY TO HELL

Ok, our second excursion was basically a baaad day. In fact, it went from bad to worse. It took us 3 hours just to leave Xi'an, due to problems with bus changes, lack of bus seats, and general chaotic (dis)organisation. We were trying to get to Hua Shan, one of Taoism's 5 sacred mountains. It has 5 peaks, which are said to symbolise the petals of a flower, and we were going to hike up all of them in 5 hours... apparently. Having enjoyed our hike along The Great Wall a few days previously, we were really looking forward to exerting ourselves again.

After about 4 hours since we'd been picked up, we arrived at Hua Shan village. We were led into a hotel and told to 'wait a moment' whilst everyone else on our bus (about 40 unfriendly Chinese tourists) was herded into another room 'to buy Chinese medicine for the hike'. 20 mins later we decided to investigate and, after walking through the medecine shop and out the other side, found everyone having a sit-down lunch in the restaurant. Very thoughtfully, we guessed, they'd assumed we wouldn't want any Chinese food (and to an extent they were right, it was still a bit early for lunch). So, we sat and waited for everyone to finish and eventually made it up the mountain, via bus & cable car, by 1pm.

This is where we got to the 'worse' part. The whole hike was a combination of cement and rock steps and pathways, which could've been okay if it hadn't been for the hundreds and hundreds of spitting, belching, screaming & yelling (so they could hear their echoes) Chinese tourists. Not to mention the teenage girls with their portable stereos. We're not exaggerating, it was a living nightmare of touristic proportions. Even all of this might've been bearable, if we'd been able to walk faster to get away, but you had to shuffle along the whole way due to the sheer number of people up on the mountain. We only just managed 3 of the 5 peaks before heading back down to the village (we were close to breaking point) and then of course had to wait the remaining 2 hours for everyone to return. Oh and did we mention that the weather was really bad, so we couldn't see any of the stunning views? Roll on tomorrow...

TERRACOTTA ARMY, CHINA

WANT MORE WARRIORS

The first of our 3 excursions out of Xi'an was to see the famous Terracotta Warriors, which are just 40 mins drive from the city centre. We were excited to see them, after having heard so much about them, and we are glad we went to see them... but maybe we expected too much? We're not sure exactly why we were slightly disappointed, except that perhaps we thought there would be more of them? From the outside, you see this massive 'airplane hangar' type structure and from photos we'd seen, we expected it to be full of warriors. However, when you walk inside you realise that it's only partially full. In fact, it's more empty than full. Don't get us wrong, we know it is an amazing archeological discovery and we did enjoy learning the history behind it, but sometimes you can build your expections too high... and that's what we did here!

XI'AN, CHINA 1

XI'AN IS PRONOUNCED 'CHI AN'

We took a 'soft sleeper' from Beijing and after a pretty restless night on the juddering train we arrived early morning in Xi'an (another Chinese city that seems to dwarf London). It's about 12 hours by train, slightly south west, from Beijing and is generally used as a base for visiting the famous Terracotta Warriors. Outside the station we were greeted by several thousand people waiting for their loved ones. Somehow we spotted a small handmade sign with our name on it and were soon being driven to our hostel (Han Tang Inn), where we had booked 3 nights, right in the city centre.

After dumping our bags and having some breakfast, we headed out to explore the Muslim Quarter close by. We wandered through the old market streets, sampling the delicious food and admiring the 'countless' Chairman Mao watches & clocks on offer. This area, at least, seemed to have much more character than Beijing, although the whole city centre is surrounded by a huge ancient wall lined with big red paper lanterns. We soon learned that you could hire bikes and cycle the whole perimeter and planned to do it on our last day. Before that, we had 3 trips booked...

THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA 3

THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA 2

THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA 1

JUST ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL?

Walking along The Great Wall of China was definitely a highlight of our whole trip. On Jesse's recommendation, we opted for the 10km hike from Jinshanling to Simitai. This section of the wall is much less touristy and most of it hasn't been reconstructed. Because of this, it felt more authentic and somehow, after 5 & a half months of 'enjoying life', we managed to race ahead (finishing an hour before everyone else) and so had the wall, and views either side, to ourselves for most of the time. It felt great to really burn off some energy and the landscapes were absolutely breath-taking. 

We kept having to pinch ourselves, to remind us that we were actually walking on 'The Great Wall', images of which we've been familiar with since we were at school. When you're stood on the top of this man-made structure, so close you can see every brick, and you can see it going on and on into the seemingly infinite distance, in both directions, over mountains and down across deep valleys, with huge towers separating each section, you cannot fail to be blown away by its magnitude. It truly is a great wall! 

Oh, and to top it off nicely, we finished with a zip line over a river and down to a boat, which took us to our pick-up point for a local lunch before heading back to Beijing. Perfect...

BEIJING, CHINA 9