Xi'an pronounced she-an

As I can't view my previous posts in China for some reason I can't quite remember where I was up to. Beijing, before going to the Forbidden City I think. Anyway, it was pretty cool. And huge. 9,999 and a half rooms. Not all open to the public. Some of it was under restoration due to the Olympics next year, as with a lot of places in China, but it was still pretty cool. Very impressive and surprisingly odd, like China itself. How anywhere could have a huge area of decadent buildings and temples that the general public can't go in is just odd. Especially when everyone outside is poor as hell and the emperor is living in quality surroundings with as many women as he could possibly know what to do with.
Some of the old Chinese rituals are pretty wacky. For instance, you don't really want to work for an emperor who dies, which they all do eventually, because you'll be ritually killed too. You don't want to build a tomb that the emperor is buried in either. Because afterwards they make you drink wine which destroys your vocal chords so you can't tell anyone where he's buried. I'd rather not bother getting involved myself.
Another thing I've noticed here is that everybody has the same colour hair. Which I think is why I'm such a freakshow here. Everywhere we go we get stared at and we've been asked to be in quite a few photos with Chinese people. Pretty disconcerting.
We had to see the great wall so at the last minute before leaving we booked onto a day tour including a burial tomb and some other crap 'shopping' thing that was clearly tied into the tour guide's contract. He was cool though, looked a bit like Jackie Chan. We had 2 hours on the wall over a mountain called Badaling. It was steep. We started at one point and walked over the frickin mountain in the intense heat to come back down the otherside to meet our guide. It was really good. The views were spectacular, and for one I didn't realise the Great Wall of China had steps on it. It was amazingly steep though, some of the steps were huge. Definitely a cool experience and something you've got to do. We met a cool Australian couple on the tour too, ended up walking most of the wall with them. They were a good laugh and also very kind to let us go back to their room afterwards so we could put our bags there whilst we went to the public showers. It's really hot here. We also went to a Jade factory, a traditional tea house and a silk shop. They all basically show you the process then try and flog you stuff. The silk and tea shops were the worst. In the silk shop there must've been 50 staff and no customers. Which meant we had the surreal experience of strolling round looking at stuff we weren't interested in whilst 10 Chinese girls walked behind us. Everywhere we went. Eventually we found our way out once the tour guide turned up, it was a proper maze, he seemed embarrassed by the whole thing.
So that evening we go on the train for an overnight sleeper to Xi'an, the old capital of China. The train journey was 11 hours so we got into a 4 bed compartment. Quite comfy as it happens and not too pricey. We were waiting for ages to see who would join us and eventually a mid 40s Chinese guy came in. He didn't look happy at all to be in the compartment with two westerners. Especially when he realised we couldn't speak Chinese. After a few phone calls and a lot of puffing and sighing he left, never to return. He muttered 'not popular' in English when he left. I dunno whether he meant he wasn't popular or we weren't. Anyhoo, the attendant came in and told us no-one else would be coming into the room, which was excellent.
In the morning as I woke up to the sunrise on the way to Xi'an. I got to see loads of the countryside and the odd city. It's a beautiful place, but it has it's drawbacks. I kinda grew to like Beijing but not too much. There's something about the whole place that is good but also very bad. It's strange for sure.
We arrived in Xi'an at half 8 in the morning and instantly a different prospect to Beijing. Much cleaner, more modern, not as humid(just plain hot as hell), a lot less cheats, proper licensed taxis and no-one(hardly) speaks English...at all. Luckily we learned some hand signs in Beijing and now we barter quite a bit, there are tourist prices for everything so almost anything can be bargained for. The Chinese are all about the money and when they see us they think we have pots of it, and I suppose we do in comparison, so they'll try and rip you off as best they can. Not so much here in Xi'an though. I quite like the place but I'm ready to move on. We've an internal flight booked to Shanghai, preferable over the 15 hour train ride(this country is massive).
One thing I have seen here that's worth a note, we went to a Chinese theme park, as many in china they are based around Chinese history(this one called 'Tang Paradise' after the most successful period in Chinese history), and we were the only foreigners there. At the end of the day was a huge waterfall/movie/firework display. They actually projected images onto water. It was very weird but way cool. Again we got laughed at a lot and asked to be in photos but it's not as bad here as in Beijing.
Today we went to see the Terracotta warriors. If you don't know much about them I will explain. In 1974 a farmer digging a well out in the countryside found some clay artifacts. It turned out to be one of the best archaeological finds ever. An estimated 6000 life-size clay crafted warriors and horses were buried in a tomb for one of the most famous emperors in Chinese history, from 2 and a half thousand years ago. It's pretty huge. It took 470,00 men to build it all. It was wrecked when the emperor died though so they've had to piece together all these warrior dudes. Each one is totally unique. It's pretty amazing to think about but not that great a spectacle. They still have a lot of excavation work to go so it'll keep changing for decades. Got to see it while I'm here though because I can't imagine wanting to come back to China for a while. I'm glad I came and saw the place but I wouldn't just come here on holiday.
I best got off to have a full meal and a couple of beers for 70p. Classic.

Probably the hottest day on the trip so far. What you need to do is stand by a waterfall and look inconspicuous!

Datafurong Park. A themepark for the Chinese. Doesn't look anything like Alton Towers.

Balmy barmy Beijing

So this is day two in Beijing, sort of. Stayed awake for 32 hours yesterday from the flight from Helsinki. Totally bemused and in a state of surreal shock all day. This place must take some getting used to. We met a really nice Dutch couple on the bus from the airport but then lost them in a crazy bicycle taxi ride to the hostel, well not quite near the hostel, in which we ended up pay 35 quid for. But you live and learn. The taxi ride dropped us right in the middle of a hutong, which is a shanty town with really run down small houses and a total maze of streets. We just couldn't find our way out and no-one spoke much english. Thing is with China is that everyone stares at you. I don't think I could get used to it, constantly being on show. It's really strange but when you're out on the street there isn't too many tourists(aka white people) about so I think we are a real novelty. But we're also a target for badgering sales and 'friendly' chinese who really want to sell you stuff by asking you questions about where we come from and the like.
The humidity is pretty intense and there's a constant gloom covering the city, not sure if it's al smog though, possibly due to intense humidity.
Today maybe different but it really does feel like a dream. The majority of things are cheap but it can be difficult to gauge.
We've had a look round Ti'an an men square and today we're going to the forbidden city. Hopefully get to see the great wall and then move on to Xi'an to see the terracotta warriors. From clean and cool Helsinki to this is real shocker but we may get a feel for it in a few days. At the moment I'm thinking this is still partly a third world country and a long way from being an international superpower. I've no idea how the locals will react to the Olympics with all the tourists, they won't know which way to look!
Another thing is the shear amount of police and guards here. Everyone seems to be ruled over strictly and not many people seem like they're having a good time, including the tourists. I suppose it's still in the wake of communism but Mao is still an iconic figure here.
Our hotel is pretty nice,especially more so seing as it's right in the middle of abject poverty of a hutong. As soon as you walk out of the door through the nice entrance it's tumble down shacks and locals looking at you.
The buildings on the whole look really cool though and are in that typical chinese style with tiled green roofs and wood everywhere. I think some of the places are amazingly beutiful, it's just the things that go along with it that I can't get my head around.

How I managed to get a shot without a zillion people in I don't know!

This is pure China all over.

Destination Helsinki

So, what can I say? Helsinki is pretty cool, in more ways than one! It's a beautiful place but not somewhere I'd think of coming for a holiday. I'm glad we did though. Some of the buildings are amazing and the people aren't as miserable as I'd heard. A t-shirt we saw for sale sums it up really "I like Finland". And that's about it, I don't think I could love it but liking it is enough. The hostel is pretty good, especially now we've upgraded to a really flash apartment. It's like something out of an Ikea catalougue!
We've managed to see pretty much everything that Helsinki has to offer. An island sea fortress, a church cut into rock, free concert in one of the squares and plenty ofother random things. One thing that seems to be pretty widespread here is the fact that most people like heavy metal, which is good. Bars play it, it's all over the radio and the band who won the Eurovision last year, Lordi, are like national heroes here. They have their own cola, pubs and stamps!!
Overall the place is pretty cool but I think 5 days here is probably too much. It's easy to get around once you get used to all the street names being written in Finnish and Swedish, which can make map reading tough. It's also strange that it never gets dark in the summer months. You can be out at 1 in the morning and the sky is blue, very confusing.
All in all a good time but can't wait to get to Beijing now!

The Simonelski monument. Go on, you can't resist giving it a tap.

The main building in the main square of Helsinki. Can I remember it's name? Can I balls.

A church cut into rock, obviously. Architecture in Helsinki. Great. Also a good band, check em out!