Blogs from Xi'an, Shaanxi, China, Asia - page 90

We've seen three sides of China now. The old historic pretty China, the brash modern (slightly shoddy because its being built so quickly) new China and the relatively wild scenic China. The new is in danger of wiping out the old completely, leaving behind puddles of concrete and holes where buildings should have gone up but haven't. But the wild - at least down South - is still unspolit and amazingly accessible once you get a hang of where you are going. Chengdu, a city we have just left in the South China is a good example of Chinese modernisation. Whole parts of the city have been walled off so that sites can be demolished and then rebuilt. The end result is that hopes are quickly dashed as that ancient famous noodle and dumpling shop you've ... read more

Dear Family and Friends, We disembarked from the East King Cruise two days ago in Chonquing. Our local guide took us on an abbreviated tour of the city. We visited the City Hall, and Square. Enormous Pagoda like structure on the exterior, which seats 4000 people. Strolled the granite square outside, where in the evenings people dance, ballroom style and others. Buses of school children arrived, and they were all friendly and like to practice their english. It is about 16 C and very humid. We visited an authentic daily market, where locals purchase their food requirements. Vats of live wriggling eels, (horrifying), pig snouts etc. We have video. Cannot describe but was interesting+++. Later we went for lunch at a local restaurant which created the Kun Pow Chicken dish - yummy. But we do not ... read more

The actual reason for my stopover in Xi'an was the nearby Tomb of Qin Shi Huang. But the town itself was really nice, too. I arrived on the train from Beijing and just in front of the train station I was standing next to the old city wall. The whole city is structure very well inside this rectangular shaped city wall and around the central square with the old bell tower. It was in Xi'an that I discovered a Chinese basement hotel the first time. It's basically what the name tells you, the rooms are on floor -1. It's not so bad as one could imagine, and it's cheap. In my nice basement dorm room I meet Raul from Spain. The next couple of days we traveld together which was good fun.... read more

have jet setted from Beijing to Xi'an where the terra cotta warriors are the main attraction. tomorrow we bus there after walking the ancient city wall and visiting a few pagodas. 18 different kinds of dumplings for lunch today - i am going to turn in to one. Tang dynasty cultural show tonight at a dinner theater. wonderful costumes, sets, music. again, too much food. we are all getting worn down as i think adrenaline has been exhausted. every one is still getting along however. we jet set again thursday morning. yikes i need to get time to wash clothes, perhaps when we go in to enforced hibernation in our rooms for a day in Lhasa to get acclimatized to 13,000 feet. Shaanxi History Museum was a highlight today. John really enjoyed the very stuff that ... read more

First of all sorry for not finishing my story about the Kyrgyz horse trip but I got really disillussioned by writing it, hopefully I will finish later when I get the time. For now more about the present time and what has been happening. Thanks for reading and writing me back, it's great to hear from everyone. When you travel you have bad days and you have brilliant ones, excuse my British. Sometimes you just want to pack it all up and go home, but the really good ones make you want to live that same day over and over like Groundhog's Day, you know the one with Bill Murray where you see it five times for every time you actually watch it. Well in simple terms you could call these polar opposites, the days of ... read more