After shoving our two, very heavy bags up above the door of our cabin on the train I noticed a few Chinese men loitering in the corridor waiting for us to finish. Two of them were due to occupy the top two bunks in our cabin. We swiftly tidied up as much of our other stuff as we could and made room for them to sit down.

The carriage we were in was a bit newer than the one we'd occupied on the way to Beijing. Not too much was different though except for the addition of a small LCD screen for each bunk. As the train finally left the station we made ourselves comfortable and tried to find out how the screens worked as the Chinese men chatted in the corridor. Of the seven or so channels we found, most were in Chinese or were in Chinese with Chinese subtitles. The only English language channel was showing The Hulk - I now feel fully justified in not seeing it at the cinema last year.

We swiftly tucked in to our makeshift picnic of noodles, bananas and yoghurts and then prepared to spend a little while catching up on some diaries. One of the Chinese men came back into the cabin at this point and we chatted for a while. Not long after that we made our beds and tried to get some sleep.

It could have been my imagination but I'm sure that the journey from HK to Beijing wasn't anywhere near as bumpy as this one. Every time I was about to fall asleep the carriage would jolt about a bit and I'd be back to square one. By the time the morning came I was so tired I was able to sleep through the bumps. Still, being able to lie down, even if you can't sleep, beats an overnight bus journey any day.

8am arrived very quickly and before we knew it we were the last people left on the train. We made our way to the station exit and prepared ourselves to be assaulted by offers of accommodation and taxi rides. I was pleasantly surprised at the way that we were largely ignored as we emerged from the station exit. Unfortunately though the feeling didn't last too long. As we headed away from the waiting throng of people, the vultures circled and made their moves. We managed to avoid the non-meter taxis by indicating that we were heading over the road to a hotel there. The hotel and hostel touts all then started their usual banter about the hostel they were suggesting was better and cheaper. Having made a reservation already put paid to them though as soon as we were understood. Finally we were adopted by a man determined that we should get into his taxi. We were wary at first until we saw that he was a meter taxi driver. We climbed in and waited.

The first thing our driver did was look disdainfully at the police penalty notice on his windscreen. After looking at that he was generally unimpressed by the fact that we didn't want to go that far. He seemed to lose interest in having us as his fare. After waiting for five minutes we ended up in another taxi, narrowly avoiding being taken to the wrong hotel by a crafty tout who was acting as an interpreter. This driver wasn't too happy about our destination either. He held two fingers up suggesting the price of either 20RMB or 200RMB as the fare. We pointed to his meter. He started to drive off and we asked him to use the meter again. He held up his fingers again and again we insisted on the meter. Reluctantly he activated it and we carried on.

A reasonably short time later, as the meter reading reached 7.30, our taxi pulled up and the driver pointed across the busy, six lane road to a building one block back from the road. He then indicated that for 10RMB he would take us to the front door. We walked it instead.

So, by 9am we had checked in and found our way to our room and we had a little nap. The rest of the day was quite relaxed really. We walked around the city a bit, had a big lunch and found a couple of internet cafes.

Xi'an itself is supposed to be a beautiful city but so far I've not been that impressed. It seems a lot dirtier than Beijing. The poor visibility, due to haze, smog or a combination of the two, hasn't helped at all. So far all Xi'an has going for it seems to be its city wall. We haven't had a good look at it yet but maybe on a clearer day my hopes for Xi'an will met.