Street food and smog

So I made it to Xi'an on a lovely comfy overnight sleeper train (just to rub it in to certain people who laughed at me having pre-booked a train ticket and who then had to sit on a hard seat overnight...). First impressions? Well it's colder than Beijing, and cheaper, and smaller - which is a relief. Maps of Beijing were all very confusing. It's so big that what appears to be a 10 minute walk generally takes over an hour. Here I keep arriving places before I expect to, which means I'll probably have to start doing some other form of exercise to work off all the street food I keep consuming!The general problem seems to be that the easiest way to find out what something is is to try some. And generally everything tastes good! Fortunately in Xi'an it seems easier to find fruit that HASN'T been coated in a sugar glaze than it is in Beijing.

There are also fewer bicycles here, but the rickshaws are just as determined to run you down. It's a brave person who flags down a rickshaw that has a screen covering your view ahead - you don't know when to brace! Driving any type of vehicle in China requires a horn (even bicycles have them), and I suspect that the horns wear out long before the brakes...

Unfortunately today the smog is thick, putting me off the idea of going up any view-points or exploring the wall (Xi'an has an intact wall around the centre). I think it may be wishful thinking that the smog will improve though, as I heard that it snows black here... I may just have to shop more! I hope that Lezanne has lots of space in her suitcase...