XIAN

Arrived in Xian via another overnight sleeper train ........ this time shared with an elderly Chinese gentleman with a heavy cold who sneezed violently, hawked madly and never used a handkerchief ..... result is that both Emma and I now have stinking colds despite the 37 degree heat! Tried to cure it by opting for the spicy version of a Tibetan hotpot in the restaurant next door ..... bit hit and miss as there were no English menus and no pictures but the only option was something that clucked or something that swam. Turned out to be the hottest thing that Emma and I have ever tasted ....... unbelievably hot. This was just as well as I don't think the chicken neck that I bit into would have been that tasty anyway.

Xian is much nicer city that Beijing in that it is a little less polluted (not by much) and is more manageable somehow.

One thing that has struck us about China is how service staff seem poles apart ....... they vary from the overly attentive (in the nig plush department stores) to the literally plain asleep in the less upmarket stores and museums. I kid you not, on our visit to the Shanxii museum which is reputedly one of the best in China there were no less than6 people asleep with many other playing cards or reading the paper. I actually wanted to buy something and it took 5 minutes of waiting patiently before I finally made myself seen (no other cutomers by the way), the assistant then sighed heavily, put down her paper, shouted that she did not understand (ok I can get that as my Mandarin is non existent) and then went back to reading her paper. Street hawkers on the other hand are something else ...... some people simply cannot understand why you don'y want a plastic flashing copy of the Great Wall .... it's as if they think that you must be mentally deficient (well, maybe we are).