In Yanan

We have found a little internet cafe around the corner from where we are staying, so we thought time to update :)

Firstly Di got her results. 3 5's and a 6 so she is very happy :) not what she wanted (she wanted all 6's) but above her cut off...

We headed off by overnight train to Xian, now these trains are how the airlines should do it. They are all sleepers, you don't sit anywhere, all beds have a TV with some not to bad movies playing. The train also ran non-stop to xian.

We arrived and met up with Di's Uncle, who drove us to the hotel that we stayed at for two nights. I was pretty sick on the train, so we slept most of the first few hours in Xian (cause I was sick on the train I had to keep wakig di and telling her, so she was tired too :) that afternoon we had a massive lunch, they bought us all sorts of foods, and I can now say I have tried frogs legs :)

That evening we ate more (even though I have been sick it seems we are always eating :) and went and saw the temple that Monkey Magic started out at on the journey to the west (that one will be on the DVD - orders being accepted now ;)

The next day we went out and saw the terra-cota warriors. They were pretty impressive. It was also very hot and there were people seling stuff everywhere. We have heaps of photos that we will upload of these. We also got a book signed by the guy that was digging the well and found the warriors. Next we headed back to an exhibition that trys to show what it was like back when the warriors were placed there and inside the emporers tomb. The actual tomb is 1.5km from the actual warriors and simply looks like a hill, but when looking through the exhibition it was pretty impressive, the whole place had a wall 15km radius from the mound, he was the emporer that united china and started the great wall, so I guess a wall that big is nothing after a 5000km wall :) it also showed the booby traps that they think are placed throw his tomb and what the writings say it should look like.

We then had a look at the Xian muesum, was very impressive, Di's uncle said that everything in there was authentic (or it mentioned if it wasn't). It had a great collection from neolithic china right up to the last dynasty.

The next day we headed off to Yanan (which is where we currently are), Yanan is DI's birth place and the start if the communist march before the civil war, and I tell you, if they had to walk on the roads that we drove to get here then my hats are off to them. It took 7 hours to drive 290kms on some pretty winding roads (but saw some amazing places).

Now that we are in Yanan it is good, we are visiting all of Di's family and going to fit some sight seeing in as well. It is odd here, there aren't a great number of caucasian tourists, only some from the local uni and the occasional passer through, so I get lots of looks and small crowds gathering, such and odd feeling.

Well that gets us to what we are doing now, so I will leave it at that for the moment. Hope all are well.

Di and Mark.