spring festival vacation part 1
Can you guess which pack is mine?
Beijing to Xi'an visuals
Day one, Beijing train station. Standing room only.
After a 12 hour train ride we arrived in Xi'an in the morning before the sun. We hired a driver first thing, went to breakfast and then headed way out to the edge of town to the terra-cotta warriors.
I was amazed at the size of them. I knew they were life size, but REALLY had no idea of how many. Each one of them is different and resembles a real person. In the government owned souvenir shop there was an old man sitting at a table saying that he was the one who originally found them and was offering his autograph for a price. He looked authentic enough.
After the warriors we went to the Shaanxi history museum. It was filled with mainly warrior stuff, but had lots of other artifacts with great descriptions IN ENGLISH too. While at the museum I walked into a glass wall. Nothing happened, but it was funny, and my two travel buddies were unable to let me forget it for the rest of the day.
The Xi'an City Wall. That's really odd about the white cars. Ihave never seen so many white cars over here at one time before. Most of the cars here are either black 4 door sedans or taxis. In Xi'an the taxis were all green, but in Tianjin and Beijing they are all red and in the Kunming they were all like a teal color. I wonder if there someone who actually picks the color for the taxis in each city or if they all just followed some guy, cause his looked cool.
This is in the middle of the city of Xi'an near the city wall.
While on the wall I saw some construction guys at work.
To get to The Great Mosque we had to walk through many tables of random stuff for sale. I did not respond to many of the people saying hello, hello I did not feel like carrying too much random stuff for another 2 weeks in my pack. In Xi'an I did pick up a pack of post cards and a couple of terra-cotta warrior bottle openers, I used one of them the next day on the train. ;)
Inside the Great Mosque, a national historical landmark, construction started in 742, Tang dynasty, it was really odd to see some of the inside until we found out that it was a blend of both Chinese and Islamic Architecture.
After the mosque we strolled around The Muslim Quarter where I wanted to eat everything I saw and almost did. I think we bought one thing from each street vendor, not really, but it all was super tempting, especially since it was dinner time.
After hanging out in the quarter we took a double decker bus back to the train station where we started our day.
The end of a huge day in Xi'an. Waiting to get on the 34 hour train ride to Kunming. The lady in pink is very unhappy she forgot her reading material.
Beijing to Xi'an visuals
Day one, Beijing train station. Standing room only.
After a 12 hour train ride we arrived in Xi'an in the morning before the sun. We hired a driver first thing, went to breakfast and then headed way out to the edge of town to the terra-cotta warriors.
I was amazed at the size of them. I knew they were life size, but REALLY had no idea of how many. Each one of them is different and resembles a real person. In the government owned souvenir shop there was an old man sitting at a table saying that he was the one who originally found them and was offering his autograph for a price. He looked authentic enough.
After the warriors we went to the Shaanxi history museum. It was filled with mainly warrior stuff, but had lots of other artifacts with great descriptions IN ENGLISH too. While at the museum I walked into a glass wall. Nothing happened, but it was funny, and my two travel buddies were unable to let me forget it for the rest of the day.
The Xi'an City Wall. That's really odd about the white cars. Ihave never seen so many white cars over here at one time before. Most of the cars here are either black 4 door sedans or taxis. In Xi'an the taxis were all green, but in Tianjin and Beijing they are all red and in the Kunming they were all like a teal color. I wonder if there someone who actually picks the color for the taxis in each city or if they all just followed some guy, cause his looked cool.
This is in the middle of the city of Xi'an near the city wall.
While on the wall I saw some construction guys at work.
To get to The Great Mosque we had to walk through many tables of random stuff for sale. I did not respond to many of the people saying hello, hello I did not feel like carrying too much random stuff for another 2 weeks in my pack. In Xi'an I did pick up a pack of post cards and a couple of terra-cotta warrior bottle openers, I used one of them the next day on the train. ;)
Inside the Great Mosque, a national historical landmark, construction started in 742, Tang dynasty, it was really odd to see some of the inside until we found out that it was a blend of both Chinese and Islamic Architecture.
After the mosque we strolled around The Muslim Quarter where I wanted to eat everything I saw and almost did. I think we bought one thing from each street vendor, not really, but it all was super tempting, especially since it was dinner time.
After hanging out in the quarter we took a double decker bus back to the train station where we started our day.
The end of a huge day in Xi'an. Waiting to get on the 34 hour train ride to Kunming. The lady in pink is very unhappy she forgot her reading material.