Xi'an and The Terra-cotta Warriors

So the train to Xi'an was again LONG as seems to be the ongoing trend in China but there is a funny story on this one...well it seemed to be for Charlie anyway. For the first time we were on the top bunk of three on the train....hmmm do you think i could work out how to get my fat backside up there....well i did FINALLY....after much complaining and looking at Charlie for some help or inspiration at least....all he managed to do was get photographic evidence of the struggle.Not only that but once i did manage to get up there and of course had to come down at some point...again this provided many laughs!You would think that once i worked it out  i would be able to do it the second time....WRONG!!!!Anyway when we arrived in Xi'an we had a free pick up so no walking!!!!!YAY. The hostel we stayed at Hang Tang Inn was lovely more like a boutique hotel than a hostel. We dropped all our stuff off and headed out to see the Warriors. There are 3 pits where you can see them. Pit 2 was very dissapointing...pit 1 slightly better...but pit 3 was absolutely epic!The story goes the emporer who was not a very good boy was so scared of the after life he built an army to protect him in his tomb. The warriors were found by a couple of Chinese guys trying to dig a well....can you imagine stumbling across that.....gobsmacking!!! Charlie was devastated to learn the the BIBLE otherwise known as the Lonely Planet had let us down...the price quoted was half of the ACTUAL cost...still worth the £11 definately. Next night was New Years Eve...Ashley and Dora the lovely girls we met on the Trans-Mongolian joined us at the hostel for a quiz...we came 3rd out of 4 teams...GET IN!!!Midnight came with everyone a bit confused exactly when we should cheer and celebrate..and no one remembering the words to old langs....but it was all good fun with the whole bar fingerprinting and signing their names on a piece of paper that will apparantly hang in the hostel bar untill the place crumbles!The only dissapointment was that we were both planning to speak to our parents via webcam...again Chinese computers let us down and the damn thing wouldnt work. I still got to speak to mum and dad which i was relieved about but it could have been better if the tech worked. Oh well...least i got to wish them a happy new year.Next stop Chengdu to see the panda's!!