Xi'an Trip

Hello everybody,

As the title says, the biggest event of the week this time around was our trip to the city of Xi'an.  This city is located in the same province as my solo trip to Pingyao was.  However, this city was farther away than Pingyao, and so we took a plane to get there instead of a train or a bus. This was a chance for me to see how flights within the country run, and I must say that they run much more smoothly than flights I've taken within the United States.  When the boarding is called, people are for the most part at the gate and ready to go.  Within a half hour of the first call for boarding, our plane was taxing to the runway on both trips.  Everything seemed very organized and ready to go as far as travelling was concerned.

As far as the city itself was concerned, Xi'an was interesting.  We visited many locations around the city during our three days there.  The two major stops on day one were the Great Wild Goose Pagoda and a history museum nearby.  These were both small stops, as we were only there in the afternoon after our flight, and we were all tired from getting up early that morning to catch the plane.

The temple at the Wild Goose Pagoda.

An ancient chess board with jade playing pieces, found at the history museum.

The high light of the second day was visiting the location of the terracotta warriors.  These warriors are fascinating to hear about, but even more interesting to see in person.  The rows of warriors, all crafted from clay and designed to look different from one another, stand in three separate pits.  The warriors, all of which are taller than me, are very intricately designed.  There are still locations in all three pits that are being excavated, and they hope to continue to find warriors the longer they dig at the sites.

This is just pit number one.  It is the largest of the pits, but all three are massive pits full of standing soldiers.

This is the best close up of a face I could get. The crowds are kept well away from the warriors, so getting detailed close up photos was difficult.

On our final day, we went to visit the old city wall, which is still standing in the city.  Development has happened on both sides of the wall, and roads go underneath the wall in many locations.  Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the wall, as I forgot my camera in the vehicle when we arrived at the wall. :/ However, it was very similar in design to that of Pingyao's wall. The biggest difference between the two sites is that the city of Pingyao is contained intisde the wall, while Xi'an has grown and absorbed the wall into the city.  I apologize for not having any pictures to share from that location. :/

Other than that, we celebrated one more birthday this week of a friend from Nepal.  That was entertaining, and involved more singing and eating, just as the first birthday did a while ago.  Also, with only three weeks left here, we have started work on our final papers for our classes.  That has started to eat up some of my time as well.  Hopefully all keeps going well during these last few weeks, and I can make the most of my time left here.  Of course I'll keep you posted on anything that does happen during these final weeks, especially the interesting things. ;) Thanks again for reading,

Adam