http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , China , Shaanxi en-us Fri, 24 May 2013 01:52:29 +0000 Fri, 24 May 2013 01:52:29 +0000 19 April 2013I look at the air quality index readings in disbelief. 500 Hazardous For a full description of what this actually means google it. The short definition is you are inhaling poison with every breath you take. 2.5 nanometer in aerodynamic diameter particles are lodging themselves in your respiratory system ready to be absorbed by your blood. If you continue to do this for any lengt http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-784190.html Everything was going so well the next morning. Our planned taxi journey to the station area of Xian to pick up our coach to the Terracotta Army went without a hitch well there was a minor blip when our taxi driver decided he would stop for breakfast enroute but apart from that all good. And then we saw the queues for the coaches to the Terracotta Warriors As they say in Norfolk where Lottie Le http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-783537.html Our first blog post after a heartfelt departure from Dunhuang finds us in central China in the city of Xi39an the ancient capital for over ten dynasties and home of the famous Terracotta Warriors. Our train took 24 hours to get here and with all of the luggage we had to bring to accomodate both winter in Dunhuang as well as early summer in Taiwan train travel will definitely prove to be a ch http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-783273.html 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 don39t know Katja and I worked and lived together in Mildura Australia she is German and currently stu http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-782467.html I decided to stay in tonight. Ever since i arrived to china it has been nonstop. In no way am i complaining im just exhausted This morning after breakfast we went to the wild goose pagoda. Half of the area was under construction but it was beautiful It was completed in 652 ad to house the buddhist sutras brought back from india by the monk Xuan Zang. He is the one who inspired the book monkey k http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-780890.html Today we went to the woman39s history museum at the new university campus. It was such a beautiful campus and the students are very proud to call it their school. There are 24 different areas of study from english math and science. We made many students accompany us my favorite were ellen and mia everyone chooses there own english name after their favorite american stars or idols. One int http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-780809.html Today I woke up homesick. I had a dream I was eating dinner with all my friends and family like a big feast and we were all planning to go see the fields full of flowers. I don39t like waking up without my best friend by my side its harder then I thought. I feel like I will never get used to it. The sunrise today is beautiful with the thick layer of smog. I naturally wake up right before the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-780714.html First blog entry I want to pre warn everyone that most of my posts are coming from my ipod So typing is somewhat difficultI made it to china I have been in xi39an for 3 days now 2 full days and I am really liking the area. The school we are staying at is Shaanxi Normal University. There are 40000 students here and just under 10 million in the city I feel safe and welcome. The students h http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-780650.html ltstrong stylemsobidifontweight normalgtXian pronounced Shee an Xian is a city of eight million people and traces its history back 3300 years. It is the only remaining walled city in China. The wall was built 600 years ago. We learned that Xian is the centre for Fengshui. They used coal for heat as early as 1300. Xian is also the jade capital of China. Jade looks li http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/blog-779819.html ltstrong stylemsobidifontweight normalgtRural Living in China Farming in China is a challenge. We visited Pagoda Tree Village where 205 families live. Each person who does farming is given 300 square metresbut only those from the village. For example if a woman marries and moves into the village she is not entitled to farm land. Farmers can choose to give up farming and move i http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/blog-779816.html Budicek o 730 a ochod z domu o 900.Na ranajky som si dal zas placku s vajcomnastupil na 608 a smer juzna brana a park.Pri brane bolo zasa vela policajtovpribudli aj hasicske auta a jedno odtahovacie auto.Po prechadzke popri hradbach som siel do parku.Je strasne teplo a slnecnohore na hradby s batohom nepojdemby som tam skapal.pocas cesty sa rozhucala sirenacinania fakt cviciav parku vela l http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/blog-776765.html Vstavam uz o 700.V plane je terakotova armada.Elle nejde do hlavy ako mozem tak skoro vstavat.Kupujem si placku s vajcom a oblohou za 3rmb.Akurat dojedam a prichadza 608cka.Hned ako vystupim idem na zeleny bus 915 smer armada.Akurat ho stihamale i tak chodia kazdu chvilucena 8 rmbneviem ci ma o 1rmb nenatiahlibo mal stat 7rmb podla LP.Sprievodca mi hovori kde mam vystupit.Je to tu obrovsky k http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/blog-776764.html Our journey to Xian was interesting to say the least. Arriving at the airport in Beijing we were greeted by signs saying all the flights were being delayed due to snowfall. We settled into some uncomfortable airport chairs to wait.Four hours and several gate changes later we ended up being shuttled out to the plane on a bus. An uneventful flight later we arrived in Xian. Spotting a tourist i http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-775485.html As everyone knows Xian is a one of the oldest in the world with the rich history and culture. It is the capital of Shanxi province the oldest city of China. The difference between Xian and the others modern cities is that most buildings is old in Xian. Those old buildings are not indicated it lag behind other cities but show the culture completely. I think there is a lot of warmth all http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-773486.html I appologize for the length of time between posts. It makes me sad to think back on my travels since I am not traveling right now. I am sure that is obvious that I am not still in China. Although I did stay a year in Australia I shudder to think of the cost for a year visa in China for Americans. Right now I am in Austin Texas working to finance more travel. The boring day to day drugery of work http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-767945.html I was picked up by CET s private bus at the hotel in the morning. Drive for about 4.5 hours to Yanan City. We arrived there by lunch time. My China guide took us to have a taste of local specialtythe Pita Bread Soaked in Lamb Soup in Chinese they call it Yang Rou Pao Mo. This dish consists of two parts the highquality soup made of beef and mutton and pita bread. The bread is split into s http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-762779.html Although my alarm went off at 7am I accidentally went back to sleep until 8am. We got up washed dressed and packed. We left our bags at the hostel and then went for breakfast at the sister hostel down the road as breakfast is cheaper. We then got on bus 603 2y back to the train station where we caught bus 306 7y to the terracotta warriors from just outside the train station in a small bus s http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-759909.html We got up early and once again as everyone in the dorm was asleep we had to be quiet. Once we were ready we packed our bag and off we went. We grabbed some breakfast at a stall. It was like a crepe with egg and chili. We watched them make it they first put some batter onto the crepe hot plate spread it out then cracked an egg on it and spread it out over the cooking batter. They sprinkled eith http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-759898.html There were a few changes of people during the night and the train kept jolting so it didn39t feel like we had much sleep at all. We were hoping to sleeping for a bit but that annoying music started planting again at about 8am I got up and looked at the scenery for a while it was beautiful. Some places we passed had touches snow where the sun had not reached it was really pretty. The train arri http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-759424.html Decided to take full advantage of my monthly four day weekends and travel to somewhere other than Beijing so Josh and I made the trek up to Xi39anXi39an is only a short plane flight away from Beijing about an hour and a half. By train however which would have been a much cheaper way to travel it takes about 12 hours. I didn39t think I could survive on a train especially in China f http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-759321.html