Blogs from Shaanxi, China, Asia - page 5

Vanmorgen heerlijk ontbeten in het hotel. Vanalles is er te krijgen. Na het ontbijt naar het zwembad, maar daar hadden allemaal kinderen zwemles. Dit vond Lisa al niet leuk en dan ook nog het feit dat zij een mooie badmuts op moest doen, dat ging haar net iets te ver. Hierna zijn we de stad ingegaan, en daar wat rond gaan lopen. Bekend is de Belltower, midden in het stadscentrum. Deze toren gaf in het verleden dmv de bellen de tijd aan. Dit was dan tot in de verre omgeving te horen. Leuk is dat veel mensen zich omdraaien en als we langskomen. Vooral Tom is een bezienswaardigheid. Zowel meisjes als jongens staan hem aan te gapen. Aan het eind van de middag zijn de in het Cykelist restaurant even Europees gaan eten. Dit was wel ... read more

Hi All, With a morning to kill before the train back to Xi'an we went for a walk through the city to Bao Ta, The Treasure Pagoda, which was built originally in the Song Dynasty, 960 to 1279 AD. This is the only building that was left standing in Yan'an after the Japanese bombardment, how did they miss it!? It stands out like a sore thumb!. The park cost 65 RMB a ticket which I thought was expensive as there wasn't a great deal else in the park itself. Great views of the city though. Enjoy the photos Jah Bless... read more

Après quelques jours de voyage, via Nanjing et Zhenzhou (j'ai ou en profiter pour aller voir le temple Shaolin -un attrape touriste d'ailleurs, c'est effrayant à quel point le tourisme a perverti un lieu sacré et ses pratiques) j'ai fini de relier Huangshan à Xi'an. Xi'an, capitale de la province du Shaanxi et ville de 8 millions d'habitants, est avant tout connue pour l'armée de soldats en terre cuite, mais heureusement, il y a d'autres choses (mieux) à y faire ! Commençons par les soldats en terre cuite. Découverts en 1974 par des paysans,il s'agit de plusieurs dizaines de milliers de statues à taille humaine. Elles ont été enfouies à proximité de la sépulture de l'empeureur Qin 200 ans avant JC. Certes, c'est très impressionant de savoir que quelque chose d'aussi monumental a été effectué à ... read more

After spending 13 months inShenyang, the first thing I noticed was my new found ability to breathe. It didn’t smell like rotten fish guts, it wasn't overwhelmingly busy. Downtown Xi’an: To us, the buildings had shrunk to an adorable normal size. What a breathe of fresh air, I have to say this again. Welcome back lungs. Little two-storey, simple and obvious shops. These bricks were made with a simple purpose of building a small restaurant, you will notice, recognize and be able to work out that you can eat here. You can even see English here and there. This isn't the China we are used to. At last, China had put away it’s obsession with heights and super-bright redundant signs. It wasn’t as harsh, as in your face, as unruly. There were actual old buildings, some ... read more

Wednesday 28th October 2015 Upon boarding the train from Pingyao we arrived at Xian roughly 4 hours later. We then boarded the metro and made our way to the centre of the city to our hostel which was based within the city walls. Xian, much like Pingyao is an ancient city and is surrounded by a city wall. Xian however, is much larger and more developed, probably on account of the discovery of the Terracotta Army in the 1970's which turned this place into one of the most popular tourist destinations in China. We checked into our room and decided to explore the town a little before a relatively early night as we would be up early the next day to visit the Terracotta Army. It was around 4pm by the time we mobilised ourselves and ... read more