China update (part 1)

OK, so it's been a while since the last post - but since Beijing and the Great Wall, we've spent a few days in X'ian, and then a few more in Shanghai, with some fairly long train rides in between. But now we've arrived in a town called Yangshuo, and I've finally found realiable and cheap Internet access, and I have a bit of time before we have a Tai Chi lesson (which I'm guessing will be interesting!!!) I can try and get back on track...

So I'll start with X'ian...

X'ian was a bit of a surprise - huge city (much bigger than I expected), with some parts being very modern and glitzy with lots of designer shopping malls, nightclubs etc., but still with the original city walls (16km length in total) surrounding the main part of the city, and some more traditional Chinese communities.

The Islamic element that exists in the city was interesting too - the Great Mosque is an interesting mix of Chinese and Muslim style architecture.

We also managed to stumble across a great bar in a backpackers hostel, with ridiculously cheap beer and a great live band that plays some nights. The lead singer/guitarist was amazing (the Chinese Eric Clapton) and he could belt out all the classic rock songs (and although he couldn't speak English very well, he was spot on with the lyrics of every song!).

X'ian was a bit of fun, and has provided some of the more interesting highlights of the trip so far. on one random day we managed to fit in the following:

• A visit to a cave-dwelling community about two hours out of the city - this was a little bizarre but actually not that uncommon in the surrounding areas (though a lot of people are starting to build houses in these communities, there are still quite a few that live in caves) - they are basically just houses cut into dry embankments on the side of hills. Quite spacious, well ventilated, and with a few creature comforts (one even had a playstation 2 set up!). This was also a great chance for us to mix it up with the locals - all the kids came out and followed us around, and we were ushered into their homes to visit their families, pets etc.
• At night, we hit the square in front of the city gates to play badminton and fly kites. We actually drew quite a crowd with our badminton game - the locals must have thought the sight of westerners playing badminton on a sunday night a bizarre sight indeed, because we drew a crowd of fifty or sixty people. We eventually got some of them involved in the game, and kept going until a trio of musicians set up in the corner of our badminton court, which kicked off a spot of conga-style dancing (which of course, we got involved in as well!).
• Then, to top the night off, we went to a Karaoke bar called Haoledi - which seems to be a bit of institution in the major cities here. And that was weird - as soon as you go in there you get guys with snappy suits and white gloves ushering you through to buy drinks, then escorting you up to a private room with a big screen tv, three microphones, tambourines, disco balls etc. The western selection of tunes was not so up-to-date, but after a while I think we'd belted out more than enough Elvis, Beatles, Bee Gees and way too many 80's rock ballads!

All in all a very strange day!

The next day we took a trip out to the Terracotta warriors - an archealogical dig that's been turned into a big museum. There are hundreds of lifesize terracotta warriors (each carved with a unique face) found standing vigilantly at guard to an Emperor's Tomb, which was only discovered thirty years ago. There are three pits in total, and there's still excavations taking place to find more of this terracotta army. It wasn't bad, and great to see one of the most famous attractions in China, but if I had to be honest I'd say I had expected it to be a little more impressive... a lot of it is actually just mounds of dirt and sand with signs saying 'more warriors are buried here', but as I said, still kind of cool to see it all.

And after that, we caught a relatively comfortable overnight sleeper train to Shanghai.

Running out of time, so stay tuned for part 2... :)