We hiked Huashan yesterday. We went with Louisa and Carol Anne, two girls from Britian. We had plans to go on Tuesday, but the girls decided to post pone the plans for wed night, then wed morning. We also went with Tim and Paul, Fiona's son and husband. We got up at 6:30 in the morning and I made a good solid scrambled egg breakfast. We finished...

Xian is well known to be the cradle of China's civilisation where most of China dynasties rose and fell. Today Xian is classified as a small city (only 3.2 mil) in terms of China vast population and largely caters for the tourist and educational industry. One of the most famous sites in Xian are the world famous terracotta warriors which have be...

HE SAID: We woke up earlier than normal to have time for some breakfast and to make our flight to Guilin. I think that our taxi driver (of whom was cheaper than the others) probably took the long route to the airport thereby saving the tolls that probably exist on the faster route. We hit a ton of traffic on the side roads and as a result, we we...

The flight landed at about 00:30 in the morning (without much incident apart from an aborted landing right on final approach which elicted a few screams from people further back down the plane). I grabbed the courtesy shuttle bus into town; it was 75 yuan (some 4 quid 50) but very efficient. The motorways are markedly better here - this one from...

4:00pm Just finished visiting the Litong Museum. It's not too big, but it has some interesting artifacts from the different Chinese dynasties. It also has on display a few Terracotta warriors and a terracotta horse. Before coming to that museum, we went to the Terracotta Warriors Museum, which was actually as impressive as I thought it'd be. I w...

There really isnŽt anything that special about XiŽan itself, although it is a slightly more pleasant place than most of the other Chinese cities IŽve seen so far. I think the only reason anyone actually goes there is to visit the Terracotta Warriors, but for that reason alone it is one of the most visited cities in the country. I spent a couple ...

Got to Xi'an and found a room in a Hostelling International place. It's not quite as nice as the 2/3* hotels we've been getting used to but it's not too bad and just a short walk from the bell tower right in the centre of Xi'an. They are noticably making an effort to keep the old centre of Xi'an inside the wall more chinese looking. There's mock...

Ni hao again! Before Rome or London were even thought of, Xi'an (pronounced she-an) was a thriving Asian city and gateway to the famous silk road that later connected traders from Europe and Asia. Some villages not far from the city were strong agricultural communities dating as far back as 6,500 years ago! 34km east of the city is the site of X...

I got to Bangkok airport and met an Irishman, named Mark, on the plane and we talked most of the flight and I offered him my hotel room that my school had arranged for me since we were arriving so late and neither of us speak a word of Chinese! So we finally arrive in Xian airport in Communist, highly bureaucratic China ready for the harshest cu...