Back in China: From Xi An to Langmusi

From Ulaan Baatar we flew to Beijing, rested 2 days in a (more) luxurious hotel, reading the final Harry Potter book :-), before continuing on with our travel from Beijing to Xi An

Our time restraints of getting to Tibet left us with only a day to spare in Xi-An which turned our to be just enough for us. After checking into our hotel we took the bus straight to see the famous Terracotta warriors. We could tell you lots about the Terracotta warriors but then again you too know how to open Wikipedia :-) Whilst the warriors are extremly impressive to see, it is fair to say that we felt only a couple of hours were needed to see the entire museum. It was not (in our opinion) a full day outting.

We spent our evening in Xi-An wandering through the Muslim quarter and city center. Xi-An was full of life and a perfect place to get lost in . Excellent resturants are seen between even more excellent market stands and the muslim influence offers new and exciting dishes to the 'usual' chinese food we've had elsewhere. It was a perfect place after Beijing to visit and was just a nice, typical Chinese city to visit.

From Xi An to Langmusi we passed through several cities (Hezou and Lanzhou), and enjoyed the change in scenery (sun!), food (great, spicy) and people (many more minorities, Tibetan look, etc.) We wanted to pass through Xiahe, but we couldn't get the bus, plus everyone told us that Langmusi would be the more impressive of the two.

Langmusi was just, ahmmm, amazing. Probably one of the most beautiful places we've been to in China (yet). This Tibetan city is surrounded by stunning high mountains, canyons and rolling hills. It is also known for its sky burial ceremonies, in which recently deceased are placed upon the hills, in order for the vulture to come and feed on their bodies (with the notion of taking them to higher worlds). Whilst it might not be for the faint-hearted, we were hopnig to catch a glimpse of an actual ceremony but the closest we got was to visit the area and see remains of a few days-old skeletons and vultures flying over the area. It was an amazing experience but perhaps it was for the best that we hadn't seen an actual burial ceremony.
Aside from that, Langmusi offered wonderful trekking, great sun (in 66% of our 3 days there) and just great food (the Yak-burger was delicious!). We also met up with Romi's friend which was great and lots of other lovely travelers.

We continued to Jiuzhaiguo with a night stay in lovely Songpan, another pleasant city in Sichuan - great for a quick stop of nice scenery and wondering about. We're currently traveling with a couple of great Israelis whom we met in Langmusi, and are all very excited to be on our way to Jiuzhaiguo, one of China's most beautiful national parks; we'll be sending updates very soon.

Lots of pics as always - enjoy...

---

---

---