Xi'an

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I had an amazing and again, whirlwind trip through Xi'an with my 2 cousins. Very rarely do we get to unite (it's been 2 years since I've seen either), so we decided to take a brief trip to XI'an. Xi'an is actually where my father's side of the family resided until my dad's generation moved to Beijing to attend college. In fact, I even visited my dad's birthplace without knowing it! Xi'an is also extremely popular with foreigner due to duh -- teracotta soldiers! But during this time of year, it was also especially popular with locals due to its herbevoire expo. Yes... you read that correctly. Apparently, the expo involves massive exhibits made out of plants. we didn't go, but can't say i missed out on much...

First day, we got off a grueling 15hr overnight train from Hefei. Little did I know; we actually rode the "luxury" train, but more on that later. My cousin's father has connections in Xi'an, so given the prevalence of nepotism in China, we were treated quite well. We got picked up at the train station and transported to our hotel. The hotel is, at best, 2 stars by US standards, but "luxury" by China standards. We set out later that day to go to the xi'an museum and the big goose pagoda, which were both walking distance from our hotel. The big goose pagoda is only original remnant from the past as it's surrounded by modern movie theaters, shopping streets, etc. We ended up walking around the neighborhood and settling on a liangpi place for dinner. Xi'an is famous for a lot of it's small eats. Liangpi is a cold noodle in sesame and chili oil with some veggies on top.

Next day, we were picked up super early to embark on our trip to see teracotta soldiers. We arrived at 9am in the morning but the place was already packed!! We started out in the biggest excavation site and it was so grand!! I have to say that emporer qin was quite narcissistic to build something so big for himself. We ate a quick lunch and proceeded to huaqing hot springs, which was the temporary residence of Chiang Kai-shek at one time. There are no hot springs there now, though it was way too hot to engage in any activity of that sort anyway. We spent our evening in the Muslim quarters, but frankly, we didn't find anything there except overpriced souvenirs and inedible street food.

Our driver took the third day off which gave us an opportunity to explore Xi'an city by ourselves. We started out by eating at a fairly famous restaurant (see the photo). Again, we were able to try some of xi'an's famous eats, such as liangpi, tofu salad, and of course, pig intestine noodles yummm. after lunch, the sun was brutal so we ducked into a starbucks and surfed the internet with my cousin's ipad. ahhh... love starbucks. we spend the rest of the afternoon sightseeing on the city wall and the city clock tower. At night, we went barhopping by the big goose tower.

Finally, our last day! Our driver took us to famensi. it's a buddhist temple that's most famous for holding Sakyamuni Buddha's finger. I can't confirm it's a finger, much less his finger, given that they display it about 200m from where they let visitor's stand... most of the architecture has also been rebuild with unnecessarily gaudy contemporary decorations. for lunch, our driver took us to a nongjia restaurant in lingtong. Nongjia restaurants are basically opened by farmers who serve dishes that they often serve their families. so dishes are basic, but very fresh. you have to know where to go though, cuz as you can imagine, some can be quite dirty!! The one we went to was delicious :D We shared about 15 small cold dishes, such as liangpi and other cold noodle varieties, pig ear, chinese salad, etc. We also got 2 bowls of noodles each. This was probably my best meal so far!!

Later, we had to board our train back to hefei. This trip was extremely brutal as our train had no a/c!! Apparently there were so many people coming to xi'an at that time that the "luxury" trains were sold out. At some points, I thought I was going to die to heatstroke. The bathroom was also a pretty mess and I ended up trying my best to limit my food/drink intake. The ride took 18 brutal hrs.

THe next few days passed quickly in hefei with more family reunions and shopping trips. Now, onto Beijing... the last leg of my trip...

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