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Published: July 30th 2012
First day of sightseeing in Xi'an started with another weird Chinese breakfast of various dishes that seem to have been left over from the night before! God i miss bacon sooo much!!
The first port of call was the Terracota Soldiers and Horses. I wanna just add how bloody hot it is in Shaanxi province this time of year, temperatures reached 38 degrees C during our visit! However it is a dry heat so I actually prefer it to the humidity of Dalian, as long as I stay in the shade... am weirdly looking forward to reaching the New Zealand winter in two weeks!
The soldiers are magificent! They were discovered in the 70s by farmers digging a well and judging by the amount of building work and shops around here i can safely stay that those farmers are probably not farming anymore!! There are three pits, one is mostly excavated, another still covered and the final a small one thought of as a command group with generals etc. The Emperor who had these built had a huge burial city built for him, starting from when he was a young teenager! Its a vast area of land and his
actual tomb is several kilometres away from the army. Its just a shame like a lot of things here it has been very much over commercialised and the crowds were huge! However it definetly deserves being called the 8th wonder of the world!
We then went to lunch and myself, max and briony sat with the teachers and guides. The guy from the tour guide company insisted we speak only chinese which was interesting... The food here is again different; very sweet with potatoes covered in lots of syrup!
Next we went to the winter palace of several emperors. It is a hot spring where they would bring their concubines in the winter to stay warm. It even had its own central heating of sorts!
Our final stop was the city wall which encircles Xi'an. Here we hired some bikes for 40rmb each and rode the 14km distance around the top. It was amazing to be at that height and see the city in a different way! The first two sides were easy enough but when we came to the third we were riding directly into the hot wind and it was an effort on the single
gear bikes. However we made it, even if I did have to coach Jess over the finish line "Just keep turning your legs!".
That evening we went out for a "mooch" to have a "butchers" as Hongbo would say, we have been teaching him slang...bascially we went for a walk! Some of us did a bit of shopping and enjoyed some weird english t-shirts, either misstranslated or just weird. There was one with a picture of a pirate and the phrase "Apparently something has changed" any answers on a postcard please!!
We then went back, had a beer and watched the Chinese build up to the Olympic Opening Ceremony.
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Terracotta Army Exhibit
