Back at Starbucks...With Plenty of Yuan!

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First off allow me to calm everyone's fears that we are stuck over here begging on the streets or something awful like that. Perhaps we were being just a tad melodramatic in our last blog. Our banking mishap was solved this morning by going to a different bank's ATM that successfully read our cards. Apparently the ones we tried yesterday weren't "Bank of China" and for whatever reason didn't accept our cards. Or, at least that's what we could gather in our very limited Chinese. So!! Not to worry, we pulled out a few thousand yuan this morning (which sounds like a LOT more than it actually is, believe me)...and we're good to go! Thanks to everyone who responded worriedly and offered to wire us money. You guys are the best. We got a good heartfelt laugh at that.
😱
So!! Moving right along. This morning after a hearty American breakfast at the hostel (the works - eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, hash browns...heavenly greasy goodness!) we located said ATM and thankfully were no longer without funds. Immediately hopped a bus up to the north train station, where we caught another bus (local transportation for $1 vs. a tour for $40) out to see the famed Terra-Cotta Warriors. According to the guidebook, it was to be a "pleasant 45-minute drive" out of town to the site. Whoever wrote that needs to be shot. Two hours later, we were still sitting on this psychotic bus ride, praying for dear life and praying even harder for the pedestrians that nearly got whacked like lovebugs against the windshield. Our driver, in the middle of morning rush-hour traffic (which is looney tunes anyway over here), pulled a 3-point turn across eight lanes of frantic traffic, THEN somehow did a U-turn onto the wrong side of the highway just before a toll plaza. Add to that the off-roading through some small dilapidated towns and enough smog to kill an elephant, and maybe you start to get the picture. Not to say we didn't enjoy the madness!! On the contrary, we were laughing in shock and surprise the whole way. The way I see it, these guys grow up driving in this insanity, so I'm willing to bet they know what they're doing. It does make for quite the thrill ride.

At long last we arrived (in one piece) at the entrance to the Terra-Cotta Warriors. A village of shops and touts awaits you as you make your way up the hill, complete with McDonald's, KFC, Subway (with the friendliest employees you'll ever see in your life - they almost scare you with their niceness), cheesy souvenir shops, and for some odd reason, lots of FUR shops, which I found greatly upsetting, as many of the furs looked to be dogs. Onward we trudged, finally reaching the soldiers. The signs claim it to be the eighth wonder of the world - that might be a little bit of a stretch, but they are definitely an impressive sight!

In 1974, workers digging for a well found a few shards of pottery about 20 feet below ground, and a massive excavation began. What they found was an army of over 8,000 (so far) life-sized clay warriors and horses, buried for the emperor to use in his after-life. This was over 2,200 years ago!! The amazing part is that EACH and every soldier is different; they were apparently modeled after real men so no two are alike. That's what impressed me the most.

The bus ride back took half the time and was much less eventful than the morning's ride. A funny moment, though...I had the window open by my seat, and as a car passed us, it sprayed wind-shield cleaning fluid and it flew all the way across his car and sprayed me in the face!! The whole bus started laughing and I was pretty embarrassed for a moment...ah, it would only happen to me.

When we got back into the city, we headed over to the Muslim Quarter - Xi'an apparently has 60,000 Muslims living within its city walls. More great street food (including dried kiwi fruit and fried quail eggs on a stick), shops, crazy drivers, and ambience. We saw a man with the cutest husky puppy with bright blue eyes - looked just like our Denali (who we miss terribly by the way)!! We toured the "Great Mosque", which looked more Chinese than Arabic, before heading off to a scrumptious dinner near our hostel. We ordered rose tea and chrysanthemum tea, brewed with whole flowers in the pot - yum!! Dinner was PUMPKIN SOUP (going back for more tomorrow), escargot baked with peanuts (sounds really weird, I know, but it worked), and the best baked eggplant I've ever tasted!!

So tomorrow our plan is to rent bikes and ride around the top of the ancient city wall here before boarding our 7pm train to Guilin. The train will take - count 'em - 27 hours to reach its final destination, which puts us in to Guilin around 10:30pm Sunday night. Hopefully we'll be able to sleep and catch up on some reading...so we'll be off-line for a few days, I guess!! Catch you guys from Guilin on Monday.

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Photos

Marionettes
The world's largest marionettes, apparently used in the opening ceremonies of the Olympics last year.

Comments

[Lew]

Hungry
I would love to know more about Hungry your little fury monster.... and I loved the line you wrote "whacked like lovebugs against the windshield" I am so stealing that... I hope you and Jeremy continue to have a very safe and exciting trip