Xi'an

So, we arrived in Xi'an late in the afternoon and had a little downtime updating our journals and evaluating our new location. Xi'an is historically important because it was the capital of China for many centuries (including during the Qin dynasty (pronounced: chin) which some believe to be the origin of the word China). Then we ventured out into the nearby Muslim Quarter (see Islam in China on Wiki) where there is a snack street for lunner (we've been eating 2 meals a day, brunch and lunner). "Snack street" is a common term for a street lined with vendors selling all types of food from dried fruits or fried snacks to entire meals. We tasted the local specialty of cold noodles with sesame sauce and hot peppers. It was delicious! The noodles were fat, translucent and rectangular with the texture of swiss cheese and the sauce was quite spicy but subdued with sesame oil. The description can't compare to the taste. :)

The following day we went on a group tour which (in retrospect) was not the best idea. The tour was pretty inexpensive, which translated into lots of stops at gift shops, tourist traps, and the like, but i did get to see how silk was made, which was neat. The silk worms make cocoons, then the factory boils the cocoons and unrolls - literally - the silk off of them and twist multiple threads together onto spindles. We also saw the remnants of Banpo, a 6000 year old village (it sounds interesting, but in reality it consisted of post holes and skeletons). But the highlight of the tour was the Terracotta Warriors (and horses).

The warriors were made for the first Qin emperor around 200 BC to protect him in the afterlife, but when a rival heard about their construction, he sent his army to destroy them. They area was looted and burned and all of the clay figures were smashed. In 1974, they were discovered by farmers trying to dig a well (the farmers still work at the museum signing books) and museum staff still works around the clock everyday trying to reconstruct the warriors. The most interesting things we saw at the museum were two bronze chariots with horses and drivers with weapons as well as the warriors. Only about a fifth of the warriors have been repaired and are standing in military formation as the pictures show. We were able to see over a thousand of them, but there are over 8,000 at the site. One interesting fact about the warriors is that since they were all made by hand and since there were so many different craftsmen working on the project, every soldier's face is unique. It's incredible to think of the power the Qin Emperor must have held when looking at his army, still guarding him thousands of years later. Please have a look at my video of the warriors here.

That evening we had dinner at a dumpling restaurant overlooking the city which had been recommended to us. The difficulty is however, that due to the tonal nature of the Chinese language, even when we are told a word or phrase, it's almost impossible for us to repeat it correctly. So in these situations (something needed at the store, an address for a taxi, restaurant names, etc.) we ask someone who both speaks English and who can write in Chinese characters, to write a note with our required information on it, then we walk around the city like fools, showing to everyone who looks nice until we end up in what seems like the right spot, with the right product, at the right destination, etc.). Following dinner, we went to buy headphones and got lost which was alot of fun. I've realized that some of our most interesting travel experienced have involved getting lost or trying an unidentifiable food.

The following day, we failed to accomplish most of our planned goals. We rented bikes from our hotel (we heard that you could cycle around the top of the city wall) and ran several errands (lunch, train tickets, etc.) before heading to the wall. When we arrived to purchase our tickets, they said, "Yes, there are bikes on top of the wall you can rent and ride. But read the sign." And the sign of course said: You may not bring private bicycles onto the city wall. Poo. So we checked out the city bell tower instead briefly before headed to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. After 30 minutes of HIGHLY hazardous bicycling we realized the even if we reached the pagoda in within the following ten minutes, we'd only have ten more minutes before closing. We turned around, exhausted, and cycled home. In a full day, we had only visited one minor sight. Oh well.

The next day was a whirlwind of sightseeing to make up for the failures of the previous day. We woke up and packed our things, had breakfast and headed to the Big Goose Pagoda which we had missed the previous day. It was a large and lovely park, but since it was flat and sparsely treed, you could see the whole thing (no fun to explore) then we headed up the pagoda where we walked up 7 stories to take pictures of the city. It was minimally interesting. But I'm a bit "templed out" as the phrase goes. We headed from there straight to the city wall which is one of the oldest and best preserved city walls in China. After a brief chance to admire it's immense and forbidding character, we hurried back to the hostel to grab our bags before the train left for Shanghai.

The pictures on this blog are: the overnight train (this is just one car of many, please note how much it looks like barracks or an overcrowded camp, you have to sleep with all of your clothes on), a six thousand year old skull at Banpo, close-up of some of the warriors, the area of downtown near where we were staying, and the city wall (that's not fog, it's smog).