Spring Vacation?!

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Thoughts on Xi'an:

I like the random thoughts lists, therefore I will continue:

1) Dust from the Gobi Desert constantly raining on the city makes my contacts hurt.

2) Because of the Gobi Desert Sand, you can park a car outside, and the next day you'll find a thin film of yellow grime on your car. Car washes don't seem too popular here.

3) Terracotta warriors: looks like the pictures. It is quite impressive though to be standing in an archeological site that is continually still unearthing more and more warriors. around 20 000 were uncovered so far, and they're still piecing together more. Some warriors were pieced together through sifting through mounds of pieces.
Each warrior has its own unique facial features. And what's more interesting is that you can tell through the exquisite detail the rough age of the warrior (wrinkles means older, facial hair also gives age), and status (via weapons and armor).
The warriors were created to protect Emperor Qin Lin in the afterlife, so he commissioned thousands of lifesize warriors and horses to be built. Chariots were made of wood, and also stored, but because of the material, quickly disintegrated.

4) At the terracotta warriors, we gave into cheesy touristy souvenirs. For example: taking a photo of us riding a terra cotta chariot. hey. it was 10 kuai ($1.25). In retrospect.....not worth it.

5) I don't like buses in China. We went on a journey to Hu Shan, one of four holy mountains in China, where an Emperor (don't remember which one) performed the first sacrifice ever written. He also committed suicide on the mountain by jumping off. Whether the sacrifice and the suicide were related, i don't recall.
Anyway, it was supposed to be a 2 hour journey away, but we ended up on the bus for over 3.5 hours.
And it wasn't just a nice, smooth ride, no. no. no. it's China! therefore, traffic everywhere, taxis and cars weaving in and out causing the bus driver to swerve, really sketchy drivers who don't really know how to shift gears, oh the motion sickness!
and the HONKING! oh the honking! Drivers in china seem to think that the car horn is not just there for emergencies, but is required to be a good driver.

6) Chinese people are REALLY loud. So i'm in a gondola with four random chinese tourists, and one of the tourists answers her cell phone. Now, in Canada it's a polite, "hello, how are you doing?" and a semi-quiet discussion on the phone because it is after all A) not loud in the gondola, B) and you're in a small place with someone you don't know. BUT, in CHINA, "WEIIII!?!?!?" and commence speaking in the loudest and most ear drum damaging volume as possible. I can't possibly even try to describe how loud this woman was, and how much it hurt my ears. Imagine a cymbal being constantly hit together, next to your ear, and that's the closest i come to describing it. and so while i'm grimacing in pain, her three little friends just chatter on, not noticing the screeching of their friend. And of course, because they need to hear each other over their deafening friend, they in turn, speak louder to each other. Yelling to each other even though they're less than a centimetre away from each other. And of course, the vicious cycle of loudness ensues.
The funny thing is, though cellphone lady is screaming into her phone, she DOES have the forethought of covering her mouth over the receiver, as to possibly try to smother some of the sound of her screeching into the phone.
how nice.

7) Bike ride around the city wall. A city wall was built around Xi'an, which was once the capital of China. It's pretty cool - really long, 14 km in total. And so we biked ontop of the wall and well around the city! was really neat to do that, saw a lot of the Hutongs (slums) from above, and it's amazing to see how people can live in these small, rundown houses.

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Comments

[cindy]

Hutongs
Les, Hutongs are not slum, they are streets of traditional old houses. Since they are mostly very run down, they look like slum to the tourists. Most of these Hutongs are located in the downtown area, a lot of the Chinese citizens want to protect these Hutongs from the builders who destroy them for the new Condo or office buildings. Hutongs have very high historical value especially those in Beijing which become less and less everyday.