http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi--an/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , China , Shaanxi , Xi an en-us Mon, 07 Dec 09 18:06:32 +0000 Mon, 07 Dec 09 18:06:32 +0000 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 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 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 First off allow me to calm everyone's fears that we are stuck over here begging on the streets or something awful like that. Perhaps we were being just a tad melodramatic in our last blog. Our banking mishap was solved this morning by going to a different bank's ATM that successfully read our cards. Apparently the ones we tried yesterday weren't Bank of China and for whatever reason didn't ac http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi--an/blog-447498.html Ah. The joys of traveling.So. Here we are. Hogging up the computer desk at Starbucks for hours on end because our lovely bank decided to freeze our debit cards and we have the equivalent of 15 to our names. Skyping the bank didn't work apparently all the frapaccinos being blended in the background is problematic to our audio system. So my poor father is running over to the bank where we wi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi--an/blog-447238.html When I got back to Xi'an I really like Xi'an if I hadn't had plans I would have stayed another week it's a lovely city. Probably helped cos I met nice people and got a lions share of free drinks at various establishments but it's a cool city too. I had plans with Jacie to sail down the Yangtzhe river. I was planning to do it but she'd already got information and prices and reservations an http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi--an/blog-446635.html After my night train from Datong to Xi'an there was free pick up by the hostel at the station at 9am. Best hostel in China by the way. As we were getting off I met an English girl called Liz who had been on the same train as me and we were sharing a room at the hostel. We went and got clean we were both pretty gross and I did laundry as I was down to my last outfit again. It took a fair w http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi--an/blog-446288.html Finally im on the train to xian the beds are ofcourse fine if you are chinese but lanky white dudes dont fare so well so its night of my feet hanging over the edge into the aisle. arriving in xian and its not as smoggy as i was told to expect i was met with blue skies and sunshine however it did live up to its reputation of being a very dirty city much more so than beijing in my opinion. here fo http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi--an/blog-446278.html Arrive in Xi'an early on the 13th October after sound sleep on the train. But still plan only to have a mooch day heard not so good things about the Terracotta Warriors poorly displayed and this was confirmed by a couple we bumped in to after although think this could be considered treason in China very proud of the warriors understandably. Had a bit of a hectic trek through the streets http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi--an/blog-446012.html Day OneThis morning we got to sleep in a bit 730 AM instead of 630. However we were up a bit early since we were still not adjusted to the 16 hour time difference. We got ready packed our bags ate breakfast and visited an ATM for more yuan the local currency 1 about 6.5 RMB. Around 9 we got on the bus for our hour long ride to the airport. At the airport you had to check in http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi--an/blog-445582.html Hello everybodyWeather here is not so good but wersquore carrying on undeterred. Xian is a beautiful city I like it better than Beijing although I think Irsquove given Beijing a much better chance to grate on my nerves Irsquom sure that if I stayed here for a long time Irsquod find things to complain about in fact if I was here for a week in this weather Irsquod probably leave i http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi--an/blog-445351.html Hello everybody Our holiday from our holiday starts today well last night actually but that was just sitting on a train from Beijing so that doesnrsquot really count. We got a nice train out though we got a soft sleeper and theyrsquore actually comfortable and clean a nice break from reality We had three of us too Lloyd had to work so we had the whole room to ourselves. The bott http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi--an/blog-445350.html Normalerweise plane ich nur einen Tag im Voraus meine Unterkunft Reisen Tickets und so weiter. Uns wurde jedoch nahegelegt unsere nchsten Tage durchzuplanen. Grund ist der 60igste Jahrestag der Peoples Republic of China am 1. Oktober sozusagen der Chinesische 1. August. Dann ist nmlich Schulferien in gross sprich das GANZE LAND hat obligatorisch Ferien fr eine Woche. Oder anders ausgedrck http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi--an/blog-444744.html Terracotta warriors is one of the miracles in the world.I was totally shocked and moved at the first sight of it.Actuallyit let me thought about the Emporor Qin's war that accomplished the consolidation of China.I cannot emphasis the great of the QinShiHuang too muchat the same time I was proud of the countless worker who left this miracle to us.These unknow labors must had a hard time fullfil http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi--an/blog-443440.html