Xian Goldstone Hotel Xi'an

... to take the boys through. Walker and Jackson assured us that they would listen to their guide and take notes, etc. so they could write a report on it. Edu-tourism so to speak.......... <br><br>After several hours we got worried and went to look for them........ <br><br>

... Chinese guy couldn&#8217;t. The English menu I had been looking at was now taken away and replaced with the Chinese menu. Somehow I managed to get our orders through and even got Luke&#8217;s blizzard with extra nuts.<br><br>Once we were up it was time to try out our legs in a new 2 wheel fashion. We rented bikes possibly as old as the wall itself and then set out to ride the 13 km distance around the top of the wall. It was a beautiful sunny day and the smog was not as ...

... trouble it was nice to just chill. She took us to one of the local malls and we shopped around a bit, however we really didn't have any room in our bags to buy random clothes and stuff. The clothes were really funny, one shirt said "Vive la Australia" with the outline of France behind it, another said "New York" with the UK flag underneath - among others. I got a kick out of it. After the clothes section - we went to a kind of ...

... Up early as we have a free morning and I wanted to get out there. Set off with a small group to watch the early morning exercises in the park. It was a great experience and we saw Tai Chi and joined in on some of the chanting. Each park has an outdoor Gym and we were able to go on all the equipment, much to the delight of the locals. They call us "big noses " here and as I have now picked up a bit of chines, they think we are quite funny. We were ...

... Tang Dynasty when a monk from China went to India to learn about Buddhism. He returned and built this Pagoda to house the knowledge of Buddhism in China. As the symbol of the old-line Xian, Big Wild Goose Pagoda is a well-preserved ancient building and a holy place for Buddhists. Originally ...

... Dynasty. It's from his name that China is derived (Qin is pronounced as chin). He did a bunch of amazing things, but is probably most famous for being a complete nutter. He used hundreds of thousands of slaves and artisans to build himself a replica of his entire empire for this tomb. The first part of this to be discovered was an army of almost lifesized teracotta warriors. About 6000 of them. It's ...

... badboys, each with different expressions and garments. Originally they were all painted aswell. Bought the compulsory fake outside (the local guide gave us more time in the shop than to see the warriors!!!) and had our book signed by the grumpy farmer who discovered them. He's met the potential first man, Bill Clinton, so I guess we were a bit of a come-down. Xian is also home for our illustrious tour guide, Vivian, and the original capital of China. More ...

... the anal measures in Us airports which the airports themselves are not staffed or trained properly to handle. The planes were also a pleasure, more leg room than anything short of business class in United, clean and good food all included with a pleasant service ethic thrown in for good measure. Boy would the US airlines suffer if they had to compete against this type of service.