Xi'an 02.02.2007 9:37pm

Starr and I took the 9:03pm train from Beijing to Xi'an last night. We sprung for the hard sleeper since the train took about 14 hours to get here. We shared our six-person sleeper with some British guy, a Chinese guy who spoke no English, a young girl who was dropped off by her aunt, and a really enthusiastic Chinese guy who exchanged email addresses with Starr and the British guy before he left.

We arrived at 8:30 this morning, checked into the hotel that we booked online, and made our way out to the Terra Cotta Soldiers-spending an OUTRAGEOUS 65 yuan (8 bucks maybe?) to get in to the excavation site. They were cool and everything but I'm simply annoyed at the dial-up connection that every Chinese hostel seems to have. I guess you all back home should just expect that you won't really see my photos until I get home or to some place that has broadband. I'm about to experiment and try to upload all my photos at once, hoping that no one fucks with my stuff.

Tomorrow we'll check out the Muslim quarter and the city walls (maybe) before heading off towards Chengdu for the pandas and giant Buddha. We'll hit Nanjing, Shanghai and Hong Kong (fucking re-entry permit) before going to Vietnam. Miss you all.