Xi An Hotel Xi'an

Total miles: 3588.0<br>Total time: 289 hours 11 minutes<br> <br>Leaving Jamie and Susie to plan their American adventure, I pottered<br>on towards Lanzhou. Apart from the ever increasing pollution, there<br>was another calamity. Of course, my pump chose the moment when there<br>was no one else around to break. Well, I say break, I have now managed<br>to fix it by taking it apart, blowing down the tube and putting it<br>back together. At the time though it was a bit of ...

... as it had been the day before. It was a bumpy ride but it was great to get out and do a different form of physical activity for a change. The wall is fairly wide and we were able to zigzag around the surface, do circles, ride up to guard towers and then down the ramps on the other side. Very few people were on the wall which in some sections, especially those where we couldn&#8217;t see much beyond the wall, gave it a strangely eerie feeling. <br><br>It was interesting as well to ...

... mixed with Wal-Mart type of super market. I really wanted a nalgene type bottle that you could put hot water and loose tea in (all the cabbies had one). On the top of the bottle was a strainer so that the loose tea doesn't get through. It is marvelous! We also bought a bunch of tea and water and snacks. Asian supermarkets are really neat - with all the hooves and weird nuts and crackers and fish heads. After we had purchased our ...

... to join a table tennis session out doors and one of the guys with us plays for Hampshire, so he was chuffed to bits. In true Mummy Fashion I got roped in and ended up winning, much to the delight of our hosts, who all came and shook our hands!! Not bad for a bunch of big noses. We have just walked back through the little streets and alleyways, it was a great morning. We are off to a jade factory today (watch the credit card melt) and a ...

... left for the airport at about 5:00p.m. A significant "issue" with Marilyn's bags---all of them---involving a specific souvenir, requested by her son. After much loud talking and numerous searches, the souvenir under suspicion was removed and we were allowed to board the plane. We arrived in Xi'an to drizzling rain. Tomorrow we are off to see the Terra Cotta Soldiers.

... This is what China is now striving for. A much greener and harmonous world for their people to live in. Ever so slowly many of the main cities are being transformed into places such as this. One just has to look at cities such as Guilin and Nanning where huge park lands are being built around historical sites such as the Hanyao Temple. Of course there is so much 'old China ...

... in 652 during the reign of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), it functioned to collect Buddhist materials that were taken from India by the hierarch Xuanzang. The final stop of the day was the Grand Mosque. This was a Muslim site built in 742AD during the Tang Dynasty. Since it was ...

... just want to buy a house for their old parents where they can live forever..and you kinda know it will never happen..which is why it was sooo sad, but at the same time if they don't have a dream..then they don't have any hope...Oh my god..I'm gonna cry again!...They were all so cute and their stories so sad..and I thought what arseholes those people were who stole my purse..it would have gone such a long way here!.. We went on the train and sat up ...

... it had a Starbucks. Sad huh, three weeks away and we want western stuff. We did do some shopping in the Muslim area and saw the aftermath of a scaffolding collapse. We also ate in a great little restaurant (sweet and sour, yum) where the waitress gave Gabrielle a Chinese style cutsie mirror and comb! What about me? What about my needs??? Anyways, Gabrielle also went off to a Xian opera performance, with lots of dumplings for dinner (yum again).

Alrighty...1 week into the trip now. Sitting in a youth hostel in Xi'an - a pleasant 12 hour train journey south west of Beijing. And heading off to Chengdu tomorrow on a 16 hour train trip. Big country...3rd largest I believe. A quick recap on the past week for those with a care factor...got into Beijing a couple of days before joining the so called 'backpacker' group trip and heading off around China for 21 days. I actually typed the below list to help me ...