Hi Guys,

Well I'm in Xi'an, at a "Redwoods Network" internet cafe - which isn't far from the hotel, it's actually pretty good (not too smokey, which is a miracle).

Last night through to this morning I was travelling on the hard sleeper train (basically groups of 6 bunks (3 high per side) facing each other, and no real seats or doors.  It's not a bad way to travel, you generally just end up drinking a little.. playing some cards and doing bugger all else (once it's dark you don't see alot, and the trips are generally always at night).

However this'morning there was some fantastic sites as we headed into the city, cooling towers, coal burners, chemical plants... All with classic chinese-soviet chiq... ignoring the rather "the worlds going to shit" aspect, it's truely imposing to see the rolling expanse of never ending factories and power lines scoring the landscape with the odd local farmers terraced plot in between.

Xi'an is a pretty amazing place, smoggy and thrumbing (like every city we've visited) but with it's own character - it has the most impressive city wall that I've seen in China, the thing is huge and in good condition... we hired bikes and travelleed on top of it today, about 14 kilometres (apparently) - it's amazing how wide it is....

Tonight me and a few of the other people in the group are going to head out to the Muslim quarter to explore the markets (the Muslim quarter is quite confined, with a number of big mosques and ...somehow they squeeze 25,000 people into it).  It should be a good opportunity to find some spicy lamb and do some haggling for crappy tat.

Tomorrow we're off to see the Terracotta warriors and then that evening we're on another train and heading off again...

I'm feeling pretty good now, just a bit of a cough/sore throat.. but otherwise not so bad, still haven't got my appetite back - but then that's not necessarily a tragedy ;o)

It's hard to believe that my trip through China is almost at an end - other then a couple of days in Datong and Pingyao, we're going to hit Beijing and that's pretty much it... A month is no where near long enough!

...but at the same time I dont think I would want more at this point - not without a break at least, China can be quite challenging, especially if you're not used to smoggy frenetic cities... it's well deserving of a culture shock rating :) as a country goes.