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Published: April 16th 2010
definitely did not pay for this
even though apparently we were supposed to. whoops.Cramming Xi'an into a three day weekend was tiring. There's a lot of stuff I didn't see, though I did knock the important ones out of the way (Terracotta Warriors, Great Mosque, Big Goose Pagoda). Getting to the Shanghai airport from Suzhou is a huge hassle so it's much more tempting to take the overnight train whenever possible. However, that involves counting on 1. the train being on time so as not to waste precious hours of your very short vacation time, and 2. there not being 2 extremely loud snorers in your compartment. Unfortunately on this trip both of these assumptions turned out false, so I enjoyed a 17 instead of 13 hour trip there, and a very sleepless night on the way back. All negatives aside, I still had a really great time with my two teaching friends, as well as meeting some colleagues from their sister school in Xi'an.
Xi'an used to be the capital of the Tang dynasty, nowadays it is fairly tiny and unimpressive. Ok I can tell I've been in China for a while because I just looked up some stats - it has a population of over 8 million, which is a HUGE city
The Army
All their faces, clothes, shoes, everything is unique by anyone's standards except China's - where it is indeed
tiny.
We spent some time wandering around the Muslim quarter and marketplace, saw the Great Mosque (China's biggest!) on Easter Sunday...hmm...
Then of course there are the obligatory buildings like the Drum Tower, Bell Tower, Big Goose Pagoda, Little Goose Pagoda, etc. To be honest they all sort of blend together after a while (sorry for my cultural insensitivity).
The Terracotta Warriors were excellent, it is astonishing how much work they have left to do even after 40 years of excavating! Huge sections have yet to be uncovered and there are lots that are still in shards and must be pieced back together. All the warriors were originally painted but the paint fades immediately once the oxygen hits it, so they're trying to figure out a way to protect the colors of the pieces yet to be uncovered. One hing I found funny is that you can distinguish the higher officials from the rest of the soldiers is by their pot bellies.
All in all it was a fun weekend away. I went a little postcard crazy so remember to check your mail, and if you would like a postcard
in the future send me your address!
On a side note, I just reached the 8 month mark. Scary! Miss you guys!
love, 爱美 <- my Chinese name
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Jim Rinaldo
non-member comment
got it all today
your post card and your blog. Great to hear all your travels and good season over there. Yes, 4 more moths to see you back - is long. Love from both of us Uncle Jim and Aunt Anita