I’m writing this diary entry from 37,000 feet. Today has been a very difficult day for us. I slept with Ali last night as he went to bed immediately when we returned from the airport and I was also feeling unwell.

When I woke up this morning I can honestly say I don’t ever remember feeling so ill. My head was splitting and my bones and joints felt like someone was tearing them apart. If it wasn’t absolutely essential to travel I would have stayed in bed all day and did in fact virtually beg Simon to change our travel plans. I thought we could perhaps stay in Vietnam in HCMC until I feel better and then get a flight to Hanoi and cross into China overland. The main flaws in this plan are that our visas expire tomorrow and if we miss our flight to Beijing our future flights may be cancelled.

In the end with a lot of help from Simon I drag my sorry arse out of bed. For the first time ever as an adult I have to have some help to shower and feel so ill I can’t even cry. I feel sorry for Simon, the kids aren’t too well either and it must be very hard trying to carry all the gear and look after us all. He’s so great and I thank my lucky stars that I have such a good travelling companion. This illness has just come at the wrong time. We are all feeling a bit low from Mum and Paul leaving and I’m very apprehensive about our visit to China. For the first time since we left I consider going home.

I feel like the day has passed in a haze of paracetamol, ibruprofen, caffeine and sugar. In an effort to relieve the headache and nerve pains I have been gobbling analgesia down like M&M’s and happily they do seem to have worked a bit. We flew from HCMC to Singapore where I bought some Clarins moisturiser, drenched myself in my favourite Vera Wang perfume and sat in a massage chair for two minutes ( had to get out – too painful).

8.30pm- at 5pm we boarded our flight to Beijing. The six hours seems to be going painfully slowly, I have watched a film with Will Smith called The Pursuit of Happiness, listened to a bit of music and now writing this. I read my diary entry for 17th Nov earlier (The last time I wrote this on board a flight). It seems such a long time ago and so many things have changed since then. I did cry as we took off, when we left Singapore last time we had our whole SE Asia adventure ahead of us, now we are almost halfway through.

Despite my complete and abject misery today I realise that I’m not ready to go home at all, just feeling unbelievably sorry for myself and hoping we’re all better tomorrow. If not then a few days in bed will do the trick I guess.

Our estimated flight arrival time is 11pm, its 9 now feeling really ill again so putting this down now. Only positive thing I can think is that Ali is slightly better today and therefore I guess this evil illness may be fairly short lived.

At last we arrived at Beijing International airport and it was the easiest immigration procedure that we have experienced since we started the trip. We were all through in around 20 minutes and soon got in a cab. Beijing is absolutely massive and our trip from the airport took around half an hour. It was now around midnight and the poor kids were shattered, I was panicking that the hostel we had booked would be closed, filthy etc and was so pleased when we arrived to find a little oasis in a somewhat dodgy looking area.

We didn’t wake up until 10am today, although we are now another hour ahead (7 hour time difference). By the time I have had a coffee and about a gallon of water I feel ok, Ali seems to be completely improved and Maisie is now the one suffering. Poor Maisie she is absolutely burning up and complaining of headaches and “feeling tender” (her words bless her!)

We spend the day quietly, go across the road for some lunch, get the laundry sorted and try and make some plans for the next few days. In the afternoon Simon and Ali go and check out the string of guitar shops around here and Maisie and I watch some DVD’s on the laptop to try and help plan our China route. We watch Destination China and Arthur’s Travels in China. I join Simon and Ali for a beer downstairs (Corona- yeh!) and unfortunately when I slam our room door closed the ceiling tiles in our room fall down on Maisie. Poor Maisie she isn’t hurt but not very impressed!

In the evening we walk 5 minutes up the road to a recommended restaurant. Its slightly intimidating walking in, the place is absolutely huge, we are the only westerners and it’s packed with families. No one seems to speak much English but eventually we order the house speciality Crispy Peking Duck. (How cool is that, eating the real deal in Peking!) The amount of food on people’s tables is amazing and it all looks beautiful. Very ornate, huge fish with teeth piled high with tiger prawns, plates of steamed vegetables, (we have celery and water lily), and lots of Chinese tea and “Snow” beer. (We have a few of them)

We sit there reading the Lonely Planet for a crash course in dinner etiquette. Most things we already know but we learn that we must point the spout of our teapot away from the table and not turn a fish over to get at the flesh underneath. (This may cause the next boat we see to capsize)

We wander back to the hotel and I decide to start taking a course of antibiotics as my throat is so painful. Previous experience tells me it probably won’t clear up otherwise and I don’t want to feel unwell for our time here. We call the kids grandparents Bob and Jude on skype and all have a good chat, then off to bed. Hope we are all feeling better tomorrow, can’t wait to get out there and explore Beijing.

Today has been a vile day and started badly with a huge family row. I think we are all getting a bit travel weary and it shows. We discuss our plans for the next few months and even talk about going home after China. In the end I don’t feel like things have been properly resolved but we reach an uneasy truce. It leaves us all upset and I worry that this isn’t the end of it but we try and get on with the day and set off for “Happy Valley” in the hope of brightening the day.

We had planned to visit Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City but that’s not really an option today and Happy Valley Amusement Park, Beijing’s answer to Disney seems to be a better choice. It’s about half an hour taxi ride from the centre of town and we arrive mid afternoon. Its quite expensive, it costs us 11 quid each and despite the fact that we try and convince the ticket seller that Maisie is under 1.4m ( she isn’t) we have to pay full price for her also.

There are so many people here it is amazing, many people seem to be part of school or college groups and are wearing matching tracksuits. It seems to be the trend for young couples to wear matching clothes also and that makes us laugh. I can’t imagine that ever catching on at home. At first there seems to be an extraordinary amount of people on mobility scooters but we realise when we see kids jumping off them and running around that they are in fact little golf carts for getting around on. How lazy is that!

We check out some of the rides, we like the look of giant plastic bubbles which float across the lake with you scrabbling around inside and queue up for the Disco, a kind of spinning version of the pirate ship. Maisie is scared but we persuade her to go on and it turns out to be much faster than we thought, she likes it though.

Ali and Simon then queue for “Nemisis”, Maisie just won’t go on it and as she became hysterical when we tried to get her to go on during a trip to Alton Towers last year I stay with her. We have a lovely time wandering around, posing with the giant ants in Antworld, having a go on the teacups ride which makes me feel sick and chatting about her friends at school.

According to Ali the ride was really good, faster than Nemesis and as everything is starting to close we head for the gates. (Two rides each- 11 quid – not bad we feel, excellent budgeting). I look up at the sky and I’m not pleased to see it has suddenly become black. There are around 3 million people outside the gates waiting for a cab and we realise we aren’t going to get one.

We walk along the road and suddenly China starts to feel very inhospitable. Its very ugly here, massive roads, with absolutely nothing to shelter under and it becomes really cold and windy and starts to throw it down. We are surrounded by huge blocks of flats and little else and Maisie says it’s so cold she can see Russia.

We get soaked, we’re freezing, it’s getting dark and we are nowhere nearer getting a taxi. A few have gone past but they won’t stop and I am feeling a bit panicky. We walk the 2 miles back to “Happy Valley” gates (Simon says it’s a spelling mistake and it’s actually called Crappy Valley) and huddle together under a motorway bridge trying to think what to do. Suddenly we remember passing a Tesco on the way and decide that is our best option, at least we may be able to buy an umbrella, coffee, waterproof jacket etc there. We dodge the traffic to the other side (A little like trying to cross the M1 in the dark while it’s pissing down) and trudge off up the road.

Silly us for thinking we might get any of the above it’s not to be and instead we are forced to wander around looking at stuff in an attempt to dry out. After half an hour we decide to venture out again and we shelter in the doorway while Simon braves the wet. I don’t know how he managed it amongst all these people desperate for a cab but he soon appears and we run after him to the waiting taxi.

What a relief. At last we get back to the hotel and we shower and change into warm stuff. The kids don’t want to eat and we leave them snuggled up in bed. I decide to change into trousers and it’s at this point that my misery of today is complete. My baggy trousers that used to hang off me are so tight I can hardly breathe. Oh my god how can I have put on so much weight and not even noticed. That’s it, diet tomorrow.

Today has been a much happier day all round. I was woken at 7am by an unwanted alarm call and Simon and the kids got up around 9. We have our breakfast, porridge and water for me (The diet has begun) and make some plans for the day. We decide to visit Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City and are joining the rest of Beijing’s population and hiring bikes. We have been singing Katie Melua’s song since we arrived although Maisie makes the point that there may be 4 fewer bicycles in Beijing by the end of the day.

My first impressions of Beijing are how huge it is. Everything seems big, from the sheer numbers of people to the massive apartment blocks. In some ways different to what I expected and I said to Simon and the kids I’m not too sure how I feel about Beijing yet. It is very early days but I have been struck by the ugliness of some of the buildings and that is a shock for me.

The traditional alleyways are called hutong and we are staying down one of these. The narrow alleys are lined with shops and small houses. Very pretty, with gated courtyards guarded by dragons and drums .I read how they are being razed to the ground at a rate of 10,000 per year and unfortunately the successful 2008 Olympic bid has been the final nail in the coffin for them.

We set off on our bikes through the hutong, it�s a great way to get around, Beijing is as flat as a pancake and we pass lots of interesting sights on the way. I look at the tea shops selling jasmine, green, black, oolong, white and Chinese tea, groups of men sat playing marjong and kids running up and down with kites. It all appears very sociable and we have learnt that Mayday is China’s most celebrated holiday after Chinese New Year.

We don’t get too far before we reach the main road and use the cycle path to ride towards Tiananmen Square. Chairman Mao conceived the square to project the enormity of the communist party and it is massive. We lock up our bikes, negotiate 3 subways and around a million people and walk across the square. It’s very hot and we take some photographs of the red flags fluttering from The Great Hall of the People. We seem to be a tourist attraction and lots of people stop us and ask if will pose for photographs with them. The kids are very patient and don’t complain.

On the way we discuss with the kids some of the history and events that have taken place here .The square is the symbolic centre of the Chinese universe and echoes the layout of The Forbidden City. In the mid 1960′s Chairman Mao oversaw parades of a million Red Guard soldiers and a further million gathered here to pay their last respects to Mao in 1976. In 1989 a peaceful protest by pro-democracy demonstrators turned into a massacre, and to the horror of the Western world thousands of students were killed by tanks. This was the year I started my nurse training and Simon and I talk to the kids about the pictures shown on the news at the time of a single demonstrator standing in front of a row of tanks. It seems strange to stand here in the peace and warmth of the sun imagining the chaos of 18 years ago.

We head off towards The Forbidden City, trying to learn anything other than the basics of Chinese history is proving hard. The Forbidden City was so called because it was off limits for 500 years. Built at the start of the 15th century it is the largest and best preserved group of ancient buildings in China. It was home to two dynasties of Emperors, the Ming and the Qing and they didn’t stray out of the walled city unless they absolutely had to. There are many halls, palaces and other buildings with beautiful elaborate names such as The Palace of Heavenly Purity, The Hall of Supreme Harmony and The Earthly Palace of Tranquillity. (Sounds like our house)

We make our way through slowly, I feel a bit overwhelmed by the volume of people here and for someone as impatient as me queuing for several hours to get inside the buildings isn’t really an option. We do make it inside one of the smaller palace buildings though but disappointingly find the building has not been preserved inside and contains a few cases with metal artefacts inside instead. We felt that although the buildings are quite impressive we have perhaps been spoilt a little after seeing the amazing and lovely Grand Palace of Bangkok.

At last we reach The Imperial Garden. There are some gorgeous ancient twisted trees here and we are surprised to see many people encouraging their small children to clamber on them to have their photographs taken. It is a shock for us as we are far more used to precious treasures being completely out of bounds for all.

We return to our hotel and I ring my Dad. It’s his birthday today and we have a good long chat about what we have been up to. Happy birthday Dad!

In the evening we go downstairs at our hotel to an exhibition of traditional Chinese crafts. The kids have a go at dough modelling, paper cutting, kite making and Chinese writing and seem to have a great time. Simon and I spend ages talking to a Chinese girl called Maggie who teaches English to young students. She invites us to her house and we make arrangements to visit for supper on Friday evening. I’m a bit worried about etiquette but she seems very friendly and tells us it will be a good opportunity for her young students to talk English. She asks me what we like to eat and when I say we will give anything go she suggests “Would we like the wing of a bird?!” Oh my god! I just smile and nod and tell her that sounds lovely.

Off to bed now we are going to the zoo tomorrow to see the Giant Panda’s – Hurray!!

I set the clock for 8.30 and we get up slowly, after our showers we have our breakfast in the courtyard traveller’s cafe across the road. It’s cool in there with loads of interesting things to look at such as arty photos of Chinese people and a traveller’s comments board but so smoky we decide we will try somewhere else tomorrow.

We wander up to the ATM and Ali tries out a few guitars on the way. We are thinking of buying him a new guitar and he likes having a practice on a few! We get some cash (Seems to be disappearing fast here) the currency is the Yuan and there are 15 Y to the pound. The hotel we are staying in is costing us Y522 per night (34 quid) and I will be glad to move out from Beijing and hopefully try and save a bit of money. At the moment though that seems unlikely, due to the week long Mayday celebrations train tickets are like gold dust and Saturday will be the earliest we can leave. Still, there’s loads to do here and I’m pleased we will see a lot of the sights.

We get in a taxi and ask for Beijing Zoo. All the reviews we have read of the zoo are quite awful but we really want to see the Giant Panda’s whilst we are in China. We did think about visiting the Panda Research Centre at Chengdu but as we don’t think we will have time to go there this may be our only opportunity. When we arrive, after sitting in solid traffic for half an hour we are again, astounded by the sheer numbers of people here. Getting around any of the sights of Beijing seems to be so hard and although we are getting used to all the pushing and shoving it is quite tough.

We pay up and head straight for the Giant Panda enclosure. When we finally see the panda’s we’re really pleased we have made the effort. Its great seeing them, chewing on their bamboo and despite the hundreds crowding in front of the glass, shouting, taking pictures and waving their children in the air, the panda’s seem completely oblivious to it all.

I read somewhere that the best examples of China’s “Little Emperors” can be seen here. Due to China’s One Child Policy children are often spoilt rotten and I had to resist the urge to tell one little boy to stop pushing me else I would push him back. (And hard!) We decide to give the rest of the zoo a complete miss and after getting a few photos head for the gates.

Getting a taxi is going to be an impossibility and we cross to the other side using the subway. Luckily we manage to grab a cab as the driver is dropping someone off and it turns out to be very fortuitous for us. The cabbie is, like many other people in Beijing frantically trying to learn some English in preparation for next years Olympic Games and is very friendly. We chat to him all the way back and eventually arrange for him to take us to The Great Wall tomorrow.

We have a quick drink at our hotel and then set off on foot to The Laoshe Teahouse. The Teahouse is very old and traditional and we are shown inside to a raised room, beautifully decorated with dark wood furniture and cosy sofas. We settle down and study the price list for tea ceremony. The girl encourages us to chose an oolong tea at around Y1250 but we realise this is over 80 quid and explain that we’re not paying that for a cup of tea no matter how delicate the taste. (I don’t even drink tea) We eventually settle for the cheap version for 20 quid and it’s worth every Yuan.

The tea ceremony is complex and intricate and it lovely hearing the explanation of the ceremony first in Mandarin and then in halting English. We learn how the tea is smelled and poured and how precisely to hold the tiny delicate tea cups. It takes around an hour in total and we agree we have had a great time.Ali the tea demon especially loved it!

We’re hungry now and chose a small local restaurant for dinner, hoping to save a bit of money as we have spent so much in the past few days. We have beef with ginger and onion, corns with pine nuts and pork strips with bamboo. Scrummy!

I read that China may bemuse or beguile you and so far I think for me it has done both. Although I knew Beijing would be busy I don’t think I was at all prepared for the thousands of people everywhere and it is taking a bit of getting used to. Simon and the kids seem to be thriving here though and perhaps like it more than me.

Its 9pm now and we’re all excited about visiting The Great Wall tomorrow, I’m off for a shower and then to bed.

Our alarm went off at 6am and we jumped up quite quickly considering the early hour. We have arranged to meet the taxi at 7.30 and set off for The Great Wall. We’re all very excited about today and have been looking forward to this a lot. We did some research on the net and decided not to visit the wall at Badaling. It is the closest place to Beijing but the pictures on the web showed the wall completely rammed with tourists and we both felt it was important that we had the space to enjoy such a hugely anticipated experience.

Instead we are visiting the wall at Simatai 110km northeast of Beijing. Our guidebook describes it as a more exhilarating wall experience and not for the faint hearted as this section of the wall is very steep. The original wall was begun over 2000 years ago and linked separate walls that had been constructed to keep desert nomads out. During the Ming dynasty the wall was rebuilt and strengthened, taking over 100 years to complete and a tremendous cost in effort and resources.

The journey takes around 3 hours and we are entertained by our taxi driver along the way. He has got a quick sense of humour and makes us laugh as he catches on to English expressions with lightening speed. The happy grin is unfortunately wiped off his face though, as Simon points something out to me, he looks too and we drive up the back of the car in front. He jumps out to inspect the damage and gets back in looking very unhappy. The grill is all caved in. It must have been his lucky day though as 5 minutes later whilst stuck in a traffic jam the car in front reverses into us with a crunch. He is out of the car in a flash and pointing out the damage, makes a huge fuss until the family agree to pay him the full amount for a new grill!

We arrive at Simatai and decide to eat lunch first; the view from the cafe is outstanding. The Great Wall snakes off across the steepest mountain tops and into the distance and looks absolutely awesome. We finish lunch and make our way to the entrance where we pay for tickets to the cable car. As the mountains here are so steep we are going to take the cable car for the first part, then a miniature train and walk the last (extremely steep) 200 metres to the wall. The cable car is a bit of a problem for me as I’m so scared of heights but there is no way I’m walking all the way up to the wall and I want to try and be a bit braver anyway.

The views are amazing over the mountains and although my legs feel like jelly all the way I don’t cry. The mountain range goes on as far as the eye can see and although it’s not the misty vision I have seen in books it’s very beautiful in the hot afternoon sun. Then at last, after an arduous hike up the steepest steps we’re there.

There are lots of towers along the length of the wall and we are standing at tower 8. We are going to walk to tower 12, the wall itself has been partially restored here and is fairly safe although very steep. We make our way along the wall and stop frequently to take photographs. It feels almost unreal to be here and amazing. What a fantastic experience for us all, I feel so lucky to be doing this with my family and it’s a memory that I will always treasure.

We stop at a small stall (The hawkers make it everywhere!) and buy a book of photographs of the wall, 2 brass plates for the kids with their names and the date they climbed the wall on ( Tacky but irresistible!) and some ice lollies. Maisie gets her tongue well and truly welded to her ice lolly and that causes a bit of a stir whilst the delicate operation to unstick it is carried out!

We make our way back down the mountains and head back for the car. It has been a wonderful day out and exceeded all our expectations. The kids loved it and said it was one of the best things we have done since we started our trip. No one could fail to be impressed and I would recommend it to anyone who was considering a trip to China.

We get back to the hotel and head straight out again, we are now very short of time and are rushing to get everything sorted whilst in Beijing. We walk around to the guitar shop and after some haggling and bargaining agree on a price for Ali’s guitar. We are buying him a second hand Takamine guitar, a good make and at a decent price. He is thrilled with it but sorry to say goodbye to his present guitar. He has had it for 2 years and really learnt to play well on it.

We finish the day with a visit to KFC, absolutely massive over 3 floors and for a junk food addict like me a little bit of Kentucky heaven.

We have had so many plans for Beijing but in the end have only managed to achieve a few of them. Whether this has been due to the difficulties in getting around as it is Chinese” Golden Week” (Labour day Celebration) or more due to laziness on our part I’m not too sure!

We set our alarm for 7 and are up packing our gear away by 7.30. We have managed to secure train tickets to Xian for tonight and I’m feeling quite anxious about the journey. It will take over 12 hours and we could only get “hard sleeper” seats. Our seats are also in separate compartments but are in pairs which should be ok. (I hope) We have a quick breakfast and at 1030 set off in a taxi to Maggie’s house. As we are leaving Beijing tonight we had to change our plans for dinner and have arranged to visit for lunch instead.

After half an hour we reach our destination and Maggie and some of her students are waiting at the roadside for us. We walk to her house and she explains on the way that she teaches around 14 students. Two of them live with her as their family homes are far from Beijing and she also shares her house with her mum. We arrive at her apartment and are shown inside having first spoken with some relatives who are sitting on the floor outside. Maggie explains that they are very curious about us but would not normally speak to us as they are slightly shy and reserved.

The students are also a bit shy at first and so are Ali and Maisie but that doesn’t last. Soon they are all feeling more comfortable with each other and when Ali gets out his PSP that helps to break the ice. We are offered coffee, wine and rice wine to drink and accept all three. The table is laden with lots of interesting looking dishes, some of which don’t seem to resemble anything I have eaten before.

Maggie explains she has prepared some dishes for us and the students will be staying for lunch also. We are offered the first taste and cautiously dig in. I was quite worried about the correct etiquette but it seems very informal and our gift of wine and sweets is accepted graciously. We try salted vegetables, fish, chicken, traditional Beijing noodles, Shanghai dumplings and lastly soup with vegetables and the stomach of a cow. The food is strong tasting and very different to any Chinese food I have tasted in England and the whole experience was excellent.

The Chinese people seem to have a great sense of humour and there is a lot of teasing and joking throughout the meal. I think we did ok and joined in the conversation without committing any social gaffes! Although Maisie did knock some chopsticks off the table (Bad luck) it didn’t seem to cause too much alarm.

After lunch we show them some photographs of our trip and Ali plays his guitar for a while. He then goes off with the boys and Maisie joins the girls. Simon, Maggie and I spend an hour or so chatting about England, China and some of the differences and similarities in our respective cultures. We all agreed at the end that we are after all, all the same.

We have had a wonderful time and enjoyed fantastic hospitality. When the time comes to leave Maisie complains that she would like to stay longer and has had a lovely time here with her new Chinese friends. They all give her small gifts of bracelets and charms and Maggie gives her a pretty necklace.

We swap email addresses and promise to stay in touch. Maggie asks the kids if they would like to come to China next year for a vacation and asks us to send them saying they can share bedrooms with her two students and that she will collect them from the airport. I’m not too sure about that but they seem keen and readily agree!

Back at The Far East Hotel we pack up our remaining stuff. It has taken me nearly all week to feel comfortable and at home in China and Beijing has certainly been a culture shock for me. I’m feeling a lot more confident now though and far from the inhospitable place I felt China was in our first few days here I have realised that the people are in fact warm and welcoming if naturally a little reserved around us. I’ve had a great time today and am now feeling very excited about moving on to Xian to see The Terracotta Warriors.

Our train journey went without a hitch and I’m pleased to say we have arrived safely in Xian. We got to the train station early and sat on the floor for an hour until we were allowed onto the platform. There are so many people here and everyone is pushing and shoving. It is a bit intimidating. We find our train carriage and I glad it looks clean although so tiny. Our beds are the 4 top bunks in two separate compartments and we decide Ali and I will stay in one and Maisie and Simon in the other. This works out very well for Maisie as there is a 12 year old girl in their compartment who speaks excellent English.

We chat to an interesting and informative Swiss fella who seems to have travelled everywhere. This train goes all the way to Lhasa in Tibet crossing the Qinghai Plateau and takes over 40 hours. I can remember watching a TV programme about this train. As the elevation is 5000 metres oxygen is piped into the carriages to combat acute mountain sickness and a comprehensive health declaration must first be completed. It’s fascinating and we immediately add that “once in a lifetime” trip to our list of future places to go.

The lights are turned out early and I go straight to sleep and sleep like a log. Good job really as the space we have is so restricted I wouldn’t have wanted to be awake for any length of time. Ali spends an hour listening to his German lessons on his PSP. Without any encouragement either. (Very good Ali, a gold star for him) Wake up at 7.30 and it’s nearly time to get off.

Its 6pm now and we have had an exhausting day. We found our hostel ok and were pleased to see we have a massive room. The bathroom absolutely stinks but for 12 quid a night we are just going to put up with it.

We head off into town and try and get some western food for breakfast, unfortunately the only thing we can find is a fast food place and I’m worried as my diet is so hard to stick to here. We decide to visit The Bell Tower; it’s a large and ornate building dating from the 14th century and restored in 1739 during The Qing dynasty. We have a wander around and admire the beautifully carved ceiling. The Chinese really know how to decorate in style and we have seen some fantastic examples of fine architecture already.

Next on our agenda is to return to the train station and book our onward tickets. We do some shopping first; I buy a new t-shirt (I am so sick of wearing the same clothes all the time) and we get Ali some jeans. We get a taxi to the station and are slightly alarmed to see massive queues but when we ask at the information desk a lady ushers us into a side room and sorts it all out for us. How kind – she gives us a discount and no queuing hurray! We have decided not to visit Shanghai as all the reports we have heard are of a huge and very polluted city. Instead, on the 8th we will be heading further south to a place called Chengdu in the province of Sichuan.

We get yet another taxi to the Shaanxi History Museum. The Shaanxi Province is described as the centre of Chinese history and loaded with important archaeological sites mostly around Xian including the very famous Terracotta Army.

The museum is really good and has explanations in English as well as Mandarin. We have learnt that there were 15 Chinese dynasties and take our time examining pottery from the Ming and Qing times. The kids are great; they must be tired of looking at old pots but seem quite enthusiastic especially when we discover that some of the oldest remains of prehistoric man were found in this province. (Over 1,150,000 years old). One seriously ancient skull!

I’m really knackered now and we head back to the hostel. I’m finding China exhausting and think this is due to a combination of the difficulties we have trying to make ourselves understood; (Easier now we have a Mandarin phrasebook) and the distances between places. Really enjoying it though and looking forward to planning our trip out to see the warriors.

We got up around 8.30 and one by one braved the smelly bathroom. We have worked out that it’s the water that stinks but although I’m reluctant to shower in it we force ourselves in.. We have decided to make our way into town to a traveller’s hostel that was recommended but unfortunately full and arrange our trip to see the Terracotta Army from there. The hostel turns out to be great with very friendly staff and loads of information. We can’t resist asking for a price and when we find out they now have rooms available for 9 pounds each we decide to sod the expense and move.

We have some breakfast in their cafe and then head back to The Fenghe International Youth Hostel. We pack up our gear, pay them half of the cost of tonight’s bed and check out. The kids are pleased, there were no facilities there for travellers and when I braved the local laundry I was a bit upset to see our clothes return dyed yellow.

We arrive back at The Han Tang Inn Hostel and to the kid’s dismay tell them we have to do some schoolwork. Since the middle of our holiday in Vietnam we have been very slack and I explain to them that we have to crack on with it. They actually do ok and I break them in gently with some literacy (Their favourite lesson). They write out the answers to some questions I set them about China and then write the introduction to a story about the train journey from Xian to Chengdu in the style of a horror writer.

Maisie and I go shopping. We buy a few things and I discard some of our clothes that are now knackered. In all honesty I wasn’t that upset to see them returned ruined, it has given us an excuse to buy some new things! We have a great time practising our Chinese with our trusty phrasebook.

We arrange a night out at the theatre tonight, a huge expense but it looks really great and we’re all excited about going. The Tang Dynasty (610-907 AD) was one of the most splendid periods in Chinese history symbolising China and its vitality and I have read this performance is unforgettable. At 8pm we leave for the theatre and are soon settled at our table eating popcorn and drinking wine-hurray!

The opera is described as an over the top spectacle of traditional dance, music and singing and its absolutely wonderful. I’ve only been to the opera once in England and walked out at half time but this is lovely. So beautiful, graceful and elegant that I cried during some of the dances. My favourite pieces were the masked warrior dance where the fearsome warriors scare off ghosts and demons, the dance of the girls in the spring fields and The Feather Dance. The English announcement explained that the first emperor of The Tang Dynasty was very musical and following a dream of celestial beauties he composed this piece of music and then gave it to his favourite concubine who created The Feather Dance for him.

We all loved it and Simon and I were so pleased that Ali and Maisie also enjoyed it so much. It seemed to me to be, the most Chinese of everything we have done here so far and a completely memorable experience.

Back at our hostel. Sweet smelling bathroom. We arrange to visit the warriors tomorrow, unfortunately the bus turns out to be full and we are informed that we can hire the hostel car for the day instead at a cost of Y300. This may turn out for the best as we don’t like being part of a tour group anyway and it will be more flexible this way. It is slightly cheaper anyway, definitely a winner.

Off to bed now. Feeling very excited about tomorrow. Tonight I feel at last I am beginning to fall in love with China. It has taken a while but I am feeling a lot more comfortable now and looking forward to the rest of our China adventure.

We have had a great day. We set off at 1000am for the hour long journey out to the site of The Terracotta Warriors. The warriors were discovered in 1974 by a small group of local men digging a well. Ranked with The Great Wall as one of China’s top historical sights, the life size army of 6000 figures are stunningly well preserved and probably the most important archaeological discovery of the 20th century.

The army dates from 210bc and the documentary we watched in Vietnam explained that they stand watch over an ancient imperial city. The first emperor of China (Qin Shi Huang) had the army built to protect him in death. The majority of the site has not yet been excavated due to the huge costs involved and it is thought that a larger army may lie around the emperor’s tomb which is 1.5km away. The mausoleum itself also remains at the moment undisturbed. Probably containing many treasures, historical reports describe how the workers were all buried alive in the tomb to protect its secrets.

We stop off on the way at a massive factory selling reproduction warriors and some beautiful Chinese carpets, furniture and wall hangings. We’re not really too interested though and just have a quick scout around before jumping back into the car. Soon we are
on “The Terracotta Army Motorway” (Very impressive) and before long arrive at the site.

There are 3 pits to see and we head straight for pit 1. The largest pit containing 6000 warriors, it’s really impressive. I had heard that the warriors aren’t as big as expected but we were all awed by them. They looked big enough to me and I definitely wasn’t expecting the detail on them to be so fine. However we were surprised to see that many of the warriors were broken. Simon read that they were unfortunately destroyed by subsequent imperial dynasties when the Qin dynasty was over.

Pits 2 and 3 have only been partially excavated and we tell the kids they will have to return in 50 years time when the full extent of the site is known. We walk around all three pits, they are all covered and we can just make out some of the warriors underneath the earth. It’s an amazing sight and we felt one of the top things to see on our wish list for our trip. We take lots of photos and after a couple of hours head back to the car.

We are going to stop off at Huaqing Pool on the way back for some lunch and to see the hot springs. I have read that the naturally occurring springs were a favourite place for relaxation for the emperors of The Tang Dynasty and their favourite concubines. When we get there I can see why. The backdrop to the pools is a beautiful mountain range and the whole area is very pretty with some carefully restored palace buildings from the Tang era. We wanted to try The Imperial Toilet but got too intimidated by a fella who told Maisie off for putting her fingers on the side of a fish tank and all scuttled out

Its 9pm now and I’m feeling quite tired, we got back to our lovely hostel and I spent an hour chatting to a fella from Holland. His 8 month overland trip through the Middle East sounds very interesting and he assures us that Iran, Afghanistan and The Lebanon were beautiful places with friendly people. At the moment though I think I’ll take his word for it and don’t have any plans to visit any of those places in the future.

Just got back from shopping I bought some new sunglasses and a few other bits and pieces. Simon and I were saying on the way back how great it is to be able to nip to the shops at 10pm here. Also how we were surprised how big Xian is. (6.5 million people)

We are leaving Xian tomorrow for Chengdu and I will be sorry to leave. Xian is a lovely city with much more to offer than just the warriors. Unlike Beijing I felt very comfortable here and it’s been a pleasure to be able to buy the things that I want, see some of the lovely sights and chill out a bit. Can’t wait to get further south though. Everyone describes southern China as fantastic and as the thought of travelling to Tibet is firmly in our minds now we want to investigate that a little more. Better buy some warm stuff if we go there or maybe hire a llama/yak to cuddle up to, we shall see.