July 29th
Xi’an, pronounced ‘shee-ann”
Our morning started early once again.
Our first stop was tomb of China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huangdi. His tomb was accidentally discovered in 1974 by peasants digging a well. This is the site of the Terracotta Warriors which have been guarding the tomb, underground for over 2,000 years.
They are truly amazing life sized warriors made out of terracotta. There are over 7,000 soldiers, archers & horses. Many are in good shape, others are crushed.
However, they are taking them out piece by piece and putting them back together.
Each warrior is different - which is incredible!
This is our tour director, “Peter”.
After this we went to lunch where we saw Chinese noodles being made. That was pretty cool.
They also had snake wine - which totally freaked me out. Basically, a huge snake in a huge jar with liquid that they claimed was some sort of wine. I turned my head each time they came by with it.
I have come to the conclusion that I can get by on the following items: marinated cucumbers, fried rice with sauteed celery and then I pick the onions out of the other dishes and add to my rice & celery so there is some flavor.
We then visited the Great Goose Pagoda built in 652 AD.
Made a quick stop to take photos of the Xi’an city wall – which is the only standing city wall in all of China. All other city’s have been destroyed over the years. It is 9 miles long in the shape of a rectangle. 39 feet high and have bases that are 56 feet thick. Inside the walls is the downtown.
When you see people waiting around for a bus or taxi or just hanging out in general, they squat. This explains how they are able to use the toilets here.
(see guy on left)
I have come to the conclusion that I can get by on the following items: marinated cucumbers, fried rice with sauteed celery and then I pick the onions out of the other dishes and add to my rice & celery so there is some flavor.
We then visited the Great Goose Pagoda built in 652 AD.
Made a quick stop to take photos of the Xi’an city wall – which is the only standing city wall in all of China. All other city’s have been destroyed over the years. It is 9 miles long in the shape of a rectangle. 39 feet high and have bases that are 56 feet thick. Inside the walls is the downtown.
When you see people waiting around for a bus or taxi or just hanging out in general, they squat. This explains how they are able to use the toilets here.
(see guy on left)
Tomorrow we are flying to Hangzhou – our tour director told us on the way back to the hotel that our luggage had to be outside our doors by 10:30pm. In addition, no liquids are allowed thru security at all. So we couldn’t even keep the basics with us for our carry on bags. In addition, we had to be at breakfast at 5:15am and on the bus at 6am. All of this information was not taken at all well, especially by the ladies!
We were on our own for dinner tonight. The hotel we were in (Grand Mecure) was part of a Sofitel hotel complex. There was a French restaurant in one of the other hotels, so mom and I went there. It was very nice. We both opted for a pasta dish – although different – still tasty.
Apparently wine is not very popular here. It tends to be very expensive compared to all other drinks. Also, each time we order it, the servers never know how to open a fresh bottle. It’s quite entertaining!
After dinner, we went back to the hotel to shower and pack up our stuff to have out by 10:30p for the bag boys.
We were on our own for dinner tonight. The hotel we were in (Grand Mecure) was part of a Sofitel hotel complex. There was a French restaurant in one of the other hotels, so mom and I went there. It was very nice. We both opted for a pasta dish – although different – still tasty.
Apparently wine is not very popular here. It tends to be very expensive compared to all other drinks. Also, each time we order it, the servers never know how to open a fresh bottle. It’s quite entertaining!
After dinner, we went back to the hotel to shower and pack up our stuff to have out by 10:30p for the bag boys.
3 comments:
Your blogs are awesome Nic! I just spent my morning laughing out loud. The best is imagining your face while trying to figure out what is on your plate. Good stuff. Can't wait to read more!
AGreco
How's the air quality there? If you have any really bad days can you email me some pics? I will use them on A&B. The blog is really great btw. I feel like I'm there, minus the bathrooms, food, housing, language, and culture. Have the Chinese ever seen a black man? I bet Cliff would be a freak show over there.(not that he isn't here) MB
The newspaper tells us there is not air pollution here. The haze in the sky is just humidity.
If Cliff was here, the locals would stare at him like they do me. And when I say stare, I mean stare! Like we have 5 heads or something!
The brave locals, typically the children who speak English, will ask to take a photo with me or the darker skinned people in our group.
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