Xi'an

After twelve hours, mainly spent asleep, on the overnight train from Beijing I arrived in Xian – my second of many cities in China. Seeing as finding my hostel last time had been an undeniable failure I was quick to take up my new hostel’s offer to meet me at the station and walk me there. The staff at the Seven Sages Hostel will be hard to beat on the rest of this trip as they genuinely seemed bored and unhappy if they weren’t helping someone.

As my train had arrived at 8am I still had the entire day so explore the city. Xian is in the heart of China and was one of the country’s capital cities before Beijing due to its location on the famous Silk Road which was first used to bring Chinese culture to Europe and vice versa. Seeing as Beijing’s Bell and Drum Towers had gone down so well I chose to start exploring with Xian’s versions. Xian is a rectangular walled city with the Bell Tower in the centre and North, South, East and West Streets leading from it, so it was also a logical place to start. Just like in Beijing there was a musical demonstration on offer in the Bell Tower which comprised of five incredibly bored looking musicians trudge on stage and play an assortment of bells and Chinese stringed instruments. Im not an expert on the Chinese music but I could swear they were all out of time! It was a mess and but it didn’t look like they cared. At least it was memorable.

Following this I walked the 200 meters to the Drum tower which also offered a demonstration, except this one was bloody good! About ten men and women came out with even more different drums and symbols and created an amazing amount of noise whilst maintaining a tune. In addition they looked like they were having the time of their lives rather than the shells of people I had encountered at the Bell Tower.

As I left the drum tower I headed north into the much talked up Muslim Quarter and soon found myself wandering down tiny alleyways crowded with tiny stalls selling all kinds of “authentic” merchandise. I didn’t realise Abercrombie had a Xian branch! While I was just aimlessly walking I accidentally came across the Grand Mosque - the first of its kind in China. Having paid the £2.50 to get in I found myself completely alone in one of four courtyards which make up part of the mosque, where I was amazed to find it totally silent despite knowing the bustling Muslim quarter was just beyond its walls. I was given a booklet containing information about the mosque and how to find my way around, but due to me not starting at the front and some truly horrific spelling I ditched it in favour of just walking around unguided.

A standard muslim quarter street

I left the Muslim quarter, without buying any of the genuine North Face backpacks for £1 that were getting thrust at me, and headed down South Street towards the city gates. Here I was able to get on top of the walls and hire a bike for £2 for 100 minutes. I was given the choice of deposit methods, either 200 Yuan (£20) in cash or my passport – who would choose to hand over their passport to a guy who just happened to own a few bikes instead of £20! Anyway, having got my bike with no gears, a basket that was too small for anything and which had no brakes, I headed off around the city walls. This was a great way of seeing areas of the city I hadn't already seen or didn’t even know about, and I barely saw another person up there. I returned 100 minutes and about 10km later to return the bike and retrieve my £20, which was probably double what this bike was worth.

I could easily then get a taxi for £1.40 to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda located a few kilometres outside the city walls. It is a seven story pagoda surrounded by a temple and park area used to house eighteen Buddha statues brought to China from India. Unfortunately I wasn’t allowed to take any photos of the golden Buddhas but did get some of the great views from the top of the pagoda. If there is one thing that has really surprised me about China is the sheer number of stairs! Every attraction I seem to go to involves a hike up a few hundred of them.

The Big Wild Goose Pagoda with some rare greenary

I was now at the end of my first day and feeling pretty tired but still had to endure quite a trip home. As I had experienced in Beijing, if a taxi driver doesn’t fancy going in the direction you need to go he’ll just drive off and leave you standing there. This happened four times outside the Pagoda. I had no choice but to find a bus based on the information in my travel guide. I successfully found the bus stop for the 609 but missed the first bus as it seemed to drop off and pick up its passengers almost without stopping. I would be more prepared next time. I only had to wait a few minutes for the next one which I managed to jump on board as the doors were closing. I found a seat and sat there as the bus drove further and further away from the city centre. It turned out that I hadn’t paid attention to which side of the street I should have been standing on and ended up being told by the driver that we had reached the end of the line and I would have to get on a different bus. I did this and about an hour and a half after finishing at the Pagoda I got back to the hostel.

The hostel was particularly nice as it was all set around various courtyards linked by traditional circular gateways which played calm Chinese music throughout the day. Also the hostel owned a black Labrador and two miniature kittens which just roamed the courtyards throughout the day.

One on the courtyard in the hostel 

On the second day I had signed up to a tour to see the Terracotta Army – the premier tourist attraction around Xian. I was joined in the minibus by three Canadian girls on holiday and a Canadian guy who was approaching the end of a mammoth trip from Italy through Siberia. On the way to the Terracotta Army we stopped off at a factory used to make the millions of replica warriors that are on sale on every street in Xian, and it seemed like we weren’t going to be allowed to leave until someone bought something from the shop, but no one did. The Terracotta Army – built by the first emperor of the unified China to protect his burial site over 2000 years ago – is to be found in three “pits” within three massive hangers. It was news to me that none of the warriors had been found in tact, and had actually all been rebuilt from parts since they were discovered in 1974. Despite this, they are still quite amazing especially when you consider every one of the 6000 warriors (of which 1000 have been rebuilt) none of them look the same – they all have different faces and expressions. It’s a shame their bronze weapons all got stolen centuries ago. On the way back to Xian we stopped at a restaurant where I had a very nice chicken dish, a surprisingly nice green vegetable soup and some tea.

A small percentage of the Terracotta Army

This trip took up the majority of the day so when I got back I just lounged around the hostel before meeting up with the four Canadians again in the evening, and later Skype-ing back home. The one bad thing I have to say about the hostel is the rooms, with stone floor and no heater, were freezing! I had no choice but to sleep in a jumper and on the second night even my hat.

On the final day I just explored the streets near the hostel and found a supermarket to buy some supplies for my 16 hour train journey leaving that evening bound for Chengdu further south in China. Once again this update comes from the bed of my overnight train, it’s just this time I don’t get to share with the likes of Clark, but instead with a single Chinese woman, who doesn’t realise the music she is currently listening to is coming out her iPod’s speakers not headphones, and an old Chinese couple. None of them speak English but are quite happy to point at me and talk in Chinese. Oh well, nine hours down just five to go...