Finally the day had arrived – Terracotta Warriors Day!  I was really looking forward to seeing the guys myself.  Our tour guide Mary picked us up at 8.30 am and we joined an Australian couple and a US couple in the minivan for our day tour.  

First we headed off to the Big Goose Pagoda; named because when the monks were hungry one day and prayed for food, a flock of geese...

We woke to a wet dreary day in Xian, which also happened to be our wedding anniversary.  After breakfast in our mini apartment we headed out in our raincoats to wonder the streets of the Muslim Quarter of Xian.  What a delight!  It was really busy on a Sunday with everyone out, even given the bad weather.  We discovered all sorts of great street foods and enjoyed the people...

We had an 11.10 am flight to Xian to catch today so we set the alarm for 7 am. I was wide awake at 6 am so I commenced folding laundry; that’s dirty laundry mind you because it fits better in backpacks when neatly folded!  Steve woke and went a bought a litre of milk (8.90 Yuan, about $1.10 AUD) in the shop downstairs so we could eat our own cereal and we proceeded with our...

We had no great expectations or plans of what we would do in Shanghai.  The first morning we set off to find breakfast.  We ended up catching a ferry to the other side of Shanghai, walked along and came across a ‘City Shop’ supermarket. We bought muffins, juice and yogurt for breakfast and sat outside and enjoyed a very quiet breakfast. 

We found it surprising that we...

I had no idea what to expect when we flew into Shanghai.  I had just recently finished reading ‘Lost on Planet China’ (author?)  and frankly I was a little scared about what ‘real China’ would be like.  I needn’t have worried because the first thing I saw when I walked out of the airport was a large ‘KFC’ sign in front of me and this ‘China’ was no better or worse than...