It would appear that all over China, the scene outside the railway stations is always one of mad excitement. For a Westerner, it's almost akin to being some kind of famous pop star!

Xi'an was no exception. Walk out into the open air and hordes of mad Chinese descend on you. The usual touts were there (taxi? minibus?) but also scores of middle-aged ladies haranguing us to buy maps and, more oddly, wanting our used train tickets. We presume that they use them for something but not even Jane knew what, or why.

We had to wait a few minutes in the car park outside for the minibus to arrive; traffic is as bad here as in most cities we've passed through (though the small towns don't suffer much at all - Yangshuo, Songpan, Langmusi, Xiahe didn't have much traffic at all). Car ownership seems to be a big city thing - but even so most vehicles in Chengdu seemed either to be taxis or hotel minibuses.

We had to wait a bit in the hotel while our rooms were finished being cleaned; it didn't take too long though, fortunately. One problem I did have though was that, in a repeat of the Chengdu situation, my door keycard didn't work, so I had to be let in by the floor staff (and then have to get it changed later).

Finally paid back Kathrin the money I owed her for the coat back in Songpan. Hey I may be late but I always repay my debts LOL (when I remember anyway)! We've hardly spoken to each other since Langmusi, which is a bit disappointing. Won't talk much to her today either as she's got a friend in Xi'an who she's going to meet.

After breakfast in the hotel (nice Chinese-style buffet breakfast with all kinds of obscure brekkie items - rice, chopped cabbage, etc.), we had the day essentially free for ourselves. The night before, Jane had given us a brief overview of the town and we all had maps, so we knew what was around.

After a brief rest in my room, I set off for a walk about 11:30am. The first place I headed was the city wall. Lots of cities in China had city walls, however most were removed or destroyed over time; the walls of Xi'an have been kept, and renovated, and it's now possible to walk or cycle right round the city (it's about 12km in total).

The Great Wall of, er, Xi'an!

I walked from the East Gate almost all the way to the South Gate. The wall is quite high, but on top it's wide and flat. You can see quite far from the ramparts; or I imagine you would have been able to before they built high-rise office blocks! Going on the wall costs 10 Yuan. I don't know if that was per section or if I could have gone right round for 10 Yuan. On the wall it was pretty quiet. I only saw a handful of people for the whole time I was up there, including a couple of cyclists. Occasionally there was a little shop or stall, but other than that it was pretty quiet and peaceful - a far cry from the streets below!

My next destination was the Shanxi History Museum, some two and a half miles south of the wall. Normal people, in this heat, for that distance, at the relative prices, would have got a taxi.

After a fairly substantial walk (!) I reached the museum about 1:30pm. It surprised me to see Dette outside - she was waiting for Louise, and told me that the lads had just gone inside, and that it was good if you liked museums! I passed Louise going out on my way in, she asked me where Dette was!

I did briefly see the lads ahead of me at the start of my visit, but I looked round a lot slower so they were nowhere else to be seen en route.

The museum was built on two levels, each made up of open-plan rooms. In essence there wasn't a lot to it, but it was fairly big. It documented, with archaeological finds, the history of the region now known as China from prehistoric times to (nominally) the end of the Emperors in the early 1900s, though in fact the last couple of centuries were pretty much glossed over. All the labels were in Chinese and English (with a couple of exceptions), and while all the maps and graphs were in Chinese only, most were pretty self-explanatory. But if I see another piece of stone that's allegedly a weapon or a piece of jewellery, I will scream!

Spent maybe an hour and a half in there; it was good to get out of the heat outside. But I knew I had to go back out there eventually. I firstly headed a bit further southwest, to quickly look at one of the pagodas in Xi'an, then had a long and pleasant walk back into the city centre, passing through the South Gate on my way.

Got back to the hotel maybe 4:30pm-ish, said "hi" to the two Odettes, and collapsed in the room for a bit!! Stayed there for a couple of hours until it was time for evening meal, and then Jane had "promised" us a disco!

Just beyond the hotel, through the main square / car park, there was a long street in the Muslim quarter. It was a bit like Songpan - narrow, busy, and lined on either side with restaurants. It was to one of these where we went for food; quite a way inside the quarter. Jane had taken groups there before, so although nothing was in English, there was a friendly atmosphere. Jane arranged all the food at the counter - she even remembered the sizzling beef, for which Dette was grateful!!

It was a damn fine meal. Strange things happened; we saw Mirella drink (and I think she even had a smoke!) - not the innocent girl we were led to believe ;) heeČ. And we played drinking games; or what would be drinking games if we were drinking (I did have a spot, actually, some of Jane's vodka. But declined Andy's Bourbon). Tom came up with one where we all crossed arms and put our palms on the table, so that (eg) between my left and my right hand Tom's right hand was on the table. Then we had to bang on the table in succession, bang twice to change direction; it all got very mad (with Dee offering additional alternative rules amid the chaos) and by the end Mirella still had both hands on the table so was declared the winner. We also played "Fuzzy Duck" (I cannot contemplate this game without thinking of my ex-penpal Claire Anderson).

Then the fun really started. I don't recall how it happened, but we somehow got on to arm-wrestling! Andy and Dan must have been keen to show off their muscles or something (!). Anyhow, Dan and one of the waiters sat down to arm-wrestle; within two seconds the waiter had won. Then Andy sat down to try; it took a bit longer and you could tell he was straining, but he too lost fairly quickly. Andy later complained that the waiter was merely playing with him, letting him think he had a chance, toying with him, then "blam". Dette had a go next, to try to preserve the honour of the tour party and promote womankind. She lasted longer than Dan, but still failed.

So then Alan stepped up to the table. The omens were not looking good. Then ... it actually looked like Alan had the upper hand. It was a tense struggle and both players fought hard and gained the advantage, but in the end it was Alan who was victorious.

Hands are joined in battle as an excited Mirella and Ian watch and a nervous Dan fiddles with his betting slip ...

A rematch was hastily arranged, on a more central table. By now, there was a reasonable crowd of restaurant workers watching on - I don't know if the other diners knew what was going on, or what they'd have thought if they did! This second match between Alan and the waiter ended in a bit of controversy, with both players being accused of cheating, of using two hands, of not sitting properly, of using their legs etc. A further match was arranged, but the same accusations flew. There was needle in this competition now!! Alan nominally won overall we think. Then we had one final match - more controversy as Alan's opponents swapped - having tired himself out he asked another, slightly bigger, waiter to take over. Needless to say, after a bit of a struggle, Alan lost!! Not to worry, we cheered him anyway!

We went from the restaurant to the nightclub, after a discussion about dancing styles; "Shopping Bags" (stand and move arms front and back as if you're shopping -> the more determined and vigorous version is DVD shopping, as practised by the Swedes!), "Stack the Shelves" (pretend to hold and move boxes from down to a higher shelf), "Big Fish, Little Fish, Cardboard Box", and many more. As far as we could tell though, no-one went on to try this in the disco!

The club was free to get in, and there was a short lift ride to the dancefloor. Drinks were relatively expensive for China (but similar to UK pub/bar prices). I had a bit of a dance but spent most of my time watching the others dance instead. Mirella was the fittest; she was dancing pretty much the whole night! Andy and Jane did try to get me to dance - nooo way! LOL! I think they were getting a tad drunk too!

The club had a large video screen on which they showed a (small) number of videos - Rock DJ (full version!) by Robbie Williams, and surprisingly a selection of Eminem's. The small screens dotted around showed a different selection of videos, and neither bore any resemblance to the music that was playing!

We got 'glow in the dark' bits of plastic, I got green but you could also get red. Looked very nice in the disco light!

At midnight the disco stopped and turned into a sort of cabaret evening; this was our cue to leave. A couple of the others stayed but me, Jane, Mirella, and a couple of others left, via a stall to get some water.

Alan had an interesting experience; a Chinese bloke started to hit on him!! He managed to avoid going back home with him though!