http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , China , Shaanxi en-us Mon, 04 Jan 2010 07:14:32 +0000 Mon, 04 Jan 2010 07:14:32 +0000 So I'm finally writing these about 6 months too late but I think I can remember most the important stuff ha. This entry is for June 19th 20th and 21st I believe...City stuffIn an earlier entry I mentioned walking through a very interesting park well above is the video of this everyday park with much more activity at 8am than any park I've been to back in the states Terracotta army was earli http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-464645.html Happy New Year to All. It is still dark here on the morning of the 1st of January 2010. I watched a bit of fireworks last night from my window but I was too tired by the time the group left. Anyway I knew it was going to be for more than just icecream and I wanted to go to sleep. They say that whatever the New Year finds you doing you will be doing a lot of for the year so I hope that I http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-464006.html It isn't mist. It isn't fog. Wanna guess Just got back from my search for a laundry facility. When I did find one some local girl in a record shop walked me over there the woman couldn't understand me and was visibly frustrated. Halfway through though I knew I had to tough it out because I wasn't coming back to hang dry my winter clothes on the outside porch. People do not have dryer http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-463828.html Did I mention free time I just finished a calligraphy class. I wasn't good at it. I will begin conversational Mandarin or Pinyin which is the word for the English pronunciations of Mandarin class tomorrow morning and continue to teach in the afternoons. My days are full as I develop the lesson plans and mark essays. I may have already lost my heart to the eager passionate very bright stu http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-463507.html Arrived just before midnight here last night and I am settling in to this wonderful dusty old city. Accommodations are good. My room mate is from Down Under and the other five volunteers are from the U.S. Breakfast was waiting for us when we woke up this morning can we do this at home and lunch was prepared for us after our walkdumplings stuffed with fruit and meats eggs fried rice s http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-463026.html The next few blogs are all about my two week study trip around China I have them all written already but it is 15 pages long. I will split them up so it's not just one huge entry with 300 pictures that way people can actually read them in one sitting. The trip started in Xi'an Terra Cotta Warriors then we went to Chengdu Panda Research Center Le Shan or Happy Mountain Giant Buddha ba http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-460637.html Jos haluat nhd tuhat vuotta historiaa mene Beijingiin.Jos haluat nhd kaksi tuhatta vuotta historiaa mene Luoyangiin.Jos haluat nhd kolme tuhatta vuotta historiaa tule Xi'aniin.Xi' aniin matkattiin tyylikkll kiinalaisella yjunalla pikkuptk 1200km hyttikaverina kaksi kohteliasta nuorta miest. Toinen kiinalaisista yski koko illan ja molemmat kuorsas raskaasti. Jnnityksell odotet http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-459946.html There is a place of interest that you must see when travel to Xi'an it is called The eighth wonder of the worldTerracotta Army. I have heard much magnificence and great about it before but I havenrsquot seen it by my own eyes till now.At 930 in the morning we arrived at the Museum of Terracotta Army which is 37kilometers away from Xirsquoan city. On getting off from the bus I saw http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/blog-459673.html On tourne la page sur Beijing et nous voil rendus Xirsquoan qui se trouve au centre de la Chine. La raison principale pour notre visite ici est lrsquoarme des Terracotta Warriors. Ce site est considr comme un des plus beaux sites archologiques du mondes et avec raisons... Nous sommes arrivs dimanche soir et pour se rendre notre hotel nous avons utiliss des scooters taxi. Notre http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-458934.html Took a two hour flight to Xi'an airport then a packed bus to central within the ancient palace walls at the bell tower. We had a short walk to Nan men Li The south gate where our hostel sheyuan hostel was located. We chilled in the cafe with our welcome coffee then ordered some food dumplings and peppered chicken for Laura. The hostel had a pet retriever which was a bit fat and was waddli http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-458685.html XirsquoAn is one of the oldest cities in China. I have traveled to quite a few cities in China but never been to Xirsquoan and it is definitely on my next to go list Xirsquoan is not a huge city and I donrsquot think you need stay more than 4 5 days there but lots of its surrounding areas worth the time to pay a visit. Since it is literally in the center of China itrsquos also http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-456662.html The Moslem QuarterThis is October 1st 2009 the 60th anniversary of the The People's Republic of China. So what better way to spend the day than watching the parade on TV and then go shopping. Who would have thought every one else would have the same ideaThere's not much to tell of the day other than we have the best time. Joel and Anna joined us too before they were to leave by train to Chengdu. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-454076.html Well we set of early for Huashan one of the five sacred Tao peaks like Taishan in our secretly hired mini bus with our secretly hired mini bus driver. Chatter started early and we soon found ourselves at the ticket station before we knew it. Even though it took about 2 hours to get there. We sort out the tickets for entry and the bus and head in to the National Park only one entry though and s http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Hua-Shan/blog-453320.html We have just got home from a massive tour today in Xi'an.We spent our first night at the Grand Mercure Hotel last night and neither of us had a good nights sleep and we really needed it. The beds are like concrete we may as well be sleeping on the lobby floor. We have also had a problem with the large shower flooding the whole bathroom. We had to get more towels so Tam went to ask at reception. N http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-453111.html Today was a bit of a drive out to the area where the Terracotta Warriors were discovered back in 1974. On the way we stopped off to one of many Terracotta Warrior factories located in the area where you can buy replicas of the actual warriors from 15cm to the actual size of 2m tall. They also showed how the warriors would have been made which was interesting.We arrived at the Terracotta Warriors http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/blog-449050.html Currently we are about 23 hours into our very long train ride. The boredom was overwhelming so I pulled out the laptop and decided to start typing this blog up on Microsoft Word even though of course we wonrsquot have internet until we arrive in Guilin in just over four hours.Yesterday was our final day in Xirsquoan. Very much enjoying our private room and no snoring roommates we slept in http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-448133.html Today we got to see what the Chinese call the 8th Wonder of the World the Terracotta Soldiers. These soldiers were part of the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang who died in 210 BC. The work on the tomb started before his death in 210 BC and may have enlisted over 700000 people to assist. These reminants of the Qin dynasty were found by a farmer in 1978 who was drilling for a well in his farm lan http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-448098.html During our first evening in Xian we enjoyed an excellent show at the Tang Dynasty Dinner Show. Dinner was ok but the show was very good Derek fell asleep at the second course but the noise of the first act woke him up. We were all still trying to adjust to the time. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-448091.html So Tracy is off shopping and I am left with the duty of writing the next step of the blog. As Tracy said last time we got up extremely early on day 6 for the hot air balloon ride and then left Yangshuo mid afternoon and traveled 3 hours to Liuzhou to pick up our 18 hour train journey to Yi Chang to start the Yangzi River Cruise aka Yangtze. Yangzi River To be fair the journey wasn't that bad. W http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-447747.html After 48 hours of travel with a 4 hour layover in Korea and 6 hours in Shanghai we've arrived at our first destination Xian. Our flights 2 and train ride went fine minus a bit of a headache at the local Shanghai train station.Our train ride was overnight in a soft sleeper. It was ok...fairly clean...minus the toilets. But it afforded us a moving hotel to sleep in overnight while coming o http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-447698.html