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Published: April 24th 2013
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The Gang
1 English & 5 Germans!! I left Beijing after 6 nights as was lucky enough to take the high speed train to Xian, the old capital of China. This city has so much history and lots of landmarks to hit so I was very excited about getting here. I was also excited about staying with my friend Katja! For those of you that don't know, Katja and I worked and lived together in Mildura, Australia, she is German and currently studying in Xian with 7 others, so I spent a lot of my time trying to understand German! Quite entertaining. It was so nice to be stable for a few nights, not to worry about lockimg my stuff away and being able to do washing! I am very thankful to Katja and her flatmate Julia for being such great hosts, they really looked after me with copious amounts of tea and a nice bed to sleep on.
Xian city centre is surrounded by a wall with gates at the North, East, South and West so I took a bus up there to wander around, I did not see amother westerner the whole day, but what I did see was very interesting. You can walk below
The Terracotta Army
If you look closely you can see how each warriors face is unique the city walls where there are paths and gardens, all the chinese are walking their children dogs etc but there are stops along the way where there is exercise equipment where there all doing their stretching and gentle exercise! Some have speakers blaring out music and they are dancing around in couples, almost professionally. Some are practising fengshui, I found the whole thing quite bizarre...the best bit is that they found me bizarre all stopping to get a good look, pointing, it was hilarious.
The next day I was desperate to get to the Terracotta Army as this is like going to Beijing and not going to the great wall. It is one of the most famous archaeological finds in the world. The First Emporer Qin Shi Huang had a terracotta army built to take him into the afterlife, it was discovered by farmers in the 1970's and is still being excavated today. There are 3 different pits to go and see, number 1 being the largest and most impressive, the one to go see last. I met a Thai girl as we were queuing to get in and we spent the day together which was quite nice, she
The Muslim Market
A selection of incense at the market, full of intense colours and smells had good English and some good Chinese too, always helpful! The army of soldiers that stand before you as you walk into pit 1 are insane, they are all hand crafted with different expressions, different hairstyles, they are all individual. It is so impressive as it must have taken years and taken so many lives to build this huge army of warriors.
I discovered the Muslim square which is inside the city walls, a mass area full of food and market stalls populated by Muslim, it is an array of different colours, smells and cultures, I loved getting lost around here! The Muslim square is situated close to the Bell and Drum towers which are two striking towers facing each other, the bell and the drum both sound at different parts of the day rhe bell is rung at dawn and the drum signifies nightfall. I was there just as the sun was beginning to set and the lights came on, it looked so pretty.
One evening we went to the Big Goose Pagaoda which is Xian's most famous landmark. The pagaoda is a stunning building and situated outside is gardens by day and a water fountain, music
The Girls
Julia, myself and Katja at a Temple close by and light show by night, its pretty cool, I have not seen something like that before, the locals love it, they try and get in it without getting splashed for photos, we witnessed a lot of fails! The Big Goose Pagoda Sq is the largest is Asia, apparently!
I took some time out whilst in Xian as I have been on the go for 5 weeks now so it was a good opportunity to take a day off and just chill which I needed, drinking lots of tea and watching FRIENDS, what better way to relax??
As I was staying on Katja's uni campus we tended to eat there most days as its good. There is quite a lot of selection for a newbie so once again I tried some new culinary delights and I even think my chopstick skills are improving...slowly! As they are the only westerners on the campus they are often approached by the Chinese to talk to or exchange details with, I was approached by one guy asking what I was studying and how long I was here for etc, I had to bumble my way through the conversation pretending I was a student
Big Goose Pagoda
Myself and Katja in front of the famous pagoda just before the fountain show started there...
After 5 nights in Xian it was time to move on, the cheapest way to travel is by train or bus, although it is not the fastest way. I decided to take the sleeper train to Shanghai which takes 14 hours, I have taken sleeper trains before in Thailand so I am not unfamiliar to the experience and secretly I was quite looking forward to it! There are no luxuries on the sleeper train, they do have food but it is cheaper if you bring your own on, there is a hot water tap so most bring a pot noodle or soup like me...and copious amounts of tea and tissues. There are 4 beds to a cabin so you can either be really lucky or very unfortunate with who you end up with! I was very lucky, to start it was myself and a Chinese woman who was chatting away to me, I wasn't understanding any of it but nodding and smiling very politely, she kindly offered me an apple which I refused and she proceeded to hand it to me until I accepted it, I made sure I watched her eat her one first and then ate
Fountain Show
You can see the fountains and lights in the background, it goes on for around 30 minutes and we were mainly surrounded by Chinese! mine! A Chinese man then joined us who took great delight to me and my height, rapidly pointing at me and then the ceiling, making myself and the Chinese lady laugh. He then pulls out a bottle of liquor from his luggage and gets some paper cups and pours some out, offering me a cup, again I politely refuse but he will not take no for an answer, so I take the cup and shyly take a sip as they are both watching me in anticipation, I swear to god that thing nearly blew my head off! I had to pretend to sip it and then sneakily pour it down the sink! It then carries on like this with more food, I have to get out my crib sheet to show them that I don't eat meat as they are offering me chicken...so I got fed well on the train! The time passes quite quickly and I didn't sleep too bad considering at points it felt as if we were being thrown around and everything was clattering extremely loudly but that's ok because I was on my way to Shanghai! !
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