Blogs from Xi'an, Shaanxi, China, Asia - page 6

Hi everyone, This post will just be about traveling to China, it was a crazy experience for me. I woke up around 5 AM to get ready and make sure everything I needed was packed. I left for the airport around 6 AM with Kevin. The drive didn't take as long as we expected since we beat most of the morning traffic. We got to the airport around 6:50 am. Kevin and I said goodbye and then I was alone in the airport. I'd never been in an airport alone before, it was a little scary. I met up with some of my classmates around 7:15 or 7:25 am. We waited for others for a little while and then decided to get food. Our flight was set to leave at 9:50 am to go to JFK ... read more

Terracotta Warriors and other We left Xian around 0900hrs. It was a long drive to the small town where Terracotta Warriors were being excavated. On the way we stopped at the Huaquing Palace commonly known as Hot Springs. The Palace was built by later dynasties. The palace was the summer retreat of the Emperor and his favourite concubines. There were a lot of small lakes (full of fish) around palace rooms. There were also many baths in different shapes and one wondered if they were influenced by the Romans with their techniques in water canals and endearment to bathing. The whole complex with small and beautiful walk ways around the gardens and palace buildings were built on the side of a high mountain atop which was another palace building (now with a ropeway to it). In ... read more

Only in China? A revolving door with a maximum capacity of 9 people. Cycling around the old city walls of Xian was a beautiful morning well spent although we could have done with more than our allotted 2 hours as there was plenty to see when we dismounted to watch what was going on in the city below. However the cobblestones were uneven and we were all a little saddle sore by the time we returned our rental bikes. We visited the Yangung burial place for Emperor Jingei, 4th Emperor of the Han dynasty and, of course, Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum site museum with the terra cotta warriors. They are impressive and must have looked splendid when they were newly painted and installed in the tomb, facing east, which would have been the direction from which their ... read more

My train ride to Xi'an was rather uneventful, other than my sitting in the wrong cable car. Darn Chinese train tickets. The Beijing West Railway Station was nice and clean, but very big. There were many, many people. I watched children run around, and I went looking for little doo-dads. There was nothing interesting enough to consider purchasing, except for Lychee-flavored water (yes, as good as it sounds). The train was normal, seats were like older airplane seats. There were many little farm villages on the way to Xi'an. For the first time in China, I saw arable land being used specifically to grow crops for nearby villages. The majority of the crops were rice and mustard flowers. The train ride was about 4 1/2 hours, and then my cab ride was around 40 minutes. He ... read more

Hi all, We didn't sleep too well last night-there is a snorer in our room (and it isn't Neil). We woke about 8am so get breakfast from the local street sellers and buy lunch for the day trip. We also bought our train tickets for Chengdu. I forgot my passport :( so once the woman had worked out what train we wanted when, (took a while with the language barrier) she sent us away to get my passport. It was only a 5 minute walk back to the hostel but it was a pain as we only had a little while before our tour started and because we then had to go through the process again with this woman.... sorry Neil :-( We met the rest of our minibus for our tour to the TCA of ... read more