Xi'an was not our cup to tea. We saw the terracotta-army and it was very impressive. Xi'an is for the rest a quiet depressing city. To make it simple: Xi'an feels like a Chinese version of Brussel. Traffic jam all day long, dark streets, shopping malls and fastfoodrestaurants. Almost no parks in the city and no blue sky because of the pollution. No need to tell you that we were glad to leave this city.
We took the nighttrain to Chengdu in a hard sleepers compartiment. As an explanation: you have to share a compartiment with 75 people. 1 toilet, 1 tap of hot water, rows of 3 beds above each other in beds made for little Chinese people. But it was fun!
Chengdu is a very pleasant city. Still no blue sky due to the pollution but beautiful parks and temples. In the parks you see people playing cards or Mahjong while they drink their tea, you see them dancing... it is a city that lives. Yesterday evening we even went to a karaokebar with Americans we met on the train. We even sang some Stromae, which they never heard of, shame on them :)
Seba tried the famous hot pot... it was a quick try. I never saw my husband becoming purple due to too hot food. You can't imagine how hot is was. It is out of our league.
Tomorrow we'll visit the pandapark and on Monday Dafu in Leshan (one of the biggest Bouddha in the world).