Xiangzimen International Youth Hostel Xi'an

TUESDAY 1ST SEPT

We arrived in the morning at a hectic Xian train station and were met by our hostel reps who whisked us away to our home for the next 5 nights. I had decide to treat us to an ensuite room for an extra two pounds a night and boy was it worth it. Xiangzimen is one of the chain Youth hostels but it might as well have been a boutique hotel. The building use to be the home of an Emporer's brother and is laid out as two three floored open chinese courtyards with rooms around...

I took the plane from Chengdu to Xi'an.

Xi'an - a city on many people's itinerary solely for the Terracotta Warriors, and we could see why. While it's city walls are impressive, what is inside and outside is less so, with construction works blotting almost every area we saw. As they say, first impressions count, and unfortunately ours were not so positive.

For some reason (poor research on our part?), we expected a smallish old town and the magic associated with that. What we got was a huge metropolis expanding in every di...

Well today's blog will be covering two days and two cities so bear with me! We started our final day in Beijing with quite an early wake up as we wanted to go to Tian'anmen Square and go into the Memorial Hall which sits in the centre of the square. Inside the Memorial Hall you are able to see the former Chairman Mao in all his formaldehyde glory as he is 'preserved in perpetuity'. To get inside the building is the main challenge (and most of the time you spend there). First you have your ID ...

Un autre matin, un autre gueule de bois, et pas plus de 1.50 depense. Je vais revenir un alcoolique fini.

Au moins avoir le nez rouge ca donne un style.

Comme un peu etre un cul-de-jatte! Chose qu'on voit souvent ici. Je crois que c'est une option de carriere, perdre ses deux jambes. Il doit faire plus de cash a queter qu'a travailler sur les echafaud anyway. J'espere que Benjamin est en train de rire de ca. Il adore les accidentes!

Parlons un peu de Xi'an, ancienne cap...

Day 66 It was Saturday and all I wanted was to sleep longer. I was feeling really tired due to the lack of sleep of the previous days but we had to wake up at 6:00 am to take the bus back to Lanzhou at 7:30. It was really a pity to spend only a day in Xiahe but I consider the visit to Xiahe and the Labrang monastery as a trigger to a future longer trip to Tibet. This is a place I really want to go back in some point. Waking up at 6:00 am was terrible, leaving the hostel was terrifying (it was...

Des *ventures! Toujours des *ventures!

Je viens d'*rriver * Xi'*n, l* ville des *utobus * 1 ku*i et des petits p*ins fourres vr*iment delicieux * 1.5 ku*i, *pres un voy*ge de tr*in bin le fun, sur des soft sleepers (c*bines de 4 lits, 2 X 2 superposes). ROADTRIP! On *v*it ceux du h*ut donc on s'*mus*it comme des fous pour der*nger les vieux d'en b*s qui nous ont p*s reveiller qu*nd on est *rrives donc on est sorti en trombe. On est rentrer d*ns notre premier *uberge ou on est supposer...

Je commence a pas etre dans un super bon etat pour pouvoir mettre un pied devant l'autre. Finalement j'avais un ampoule sur chaque pied, mais y'en a une, apoule 10 000 watts, qui prend la petite orteille au complet. Ca passe de bord en bord de l'ongle et j'ai l'impression que ca va le decoller, surtout quand elle a pete un brin hier soir. Pas pour vous degouter pour rien, mais y'a tu quelqu'un qui pourrait me donner un truc? Les plasters marchent pas, fack moi je marche pas.

Je met un ...

Bon, une journee productive hier: on est alle voir l'armee Terracotta. Cette journee la m'a tue, probablement parce que ca prit 2 heures trouver le bus. On part a l'est puis un moment donner on tourne vers le nord, vers une station de train comme la carte touristique semblerait l'indiquer. On demande a quelqu'un qui nous dit de retourner au sud et continuer a l'est, a l'est un autre nous dit de retourner a l'ouest, etc, etc. Mais c'est qu'ils se moquent de nous, ces chinois... on aura jamais ...

Hi eveyone, Really sorry it has been so long since I last wrote anything on the blog. I have updated the map pin points on the map, so you can see where we've been. So - we went to Nanjing from Hangzhou on the morning of Friday 2nd May. The journey took about 6 hours, and so we arrived in Nanjing mid afternoon. It was quite tiring spending that long on a 'hard' seat (not really hard, just very cramped!), but we were lucky to be sitting next to a Chinese girl called Grace who spoke very good E...