Train trip to Xi'an - Warriors, western food and a bathroom with a view

The Chinese version of a meat pie

With a young friend who approached me in the market. He seemed to find my actions very amusing and took delight in mimicking my English.

We *had* to see if it tastes the same .............

The Beiyuan men Islamic Street Market

Jeff on the train on the way home

Marie at the Night Market

The Bell Tower

Our hotel bathroom with a view

Big Goose Pagoda

Big Goose Pagoda

Pit No.1

For a second we wondered if we had stayed on the bus one stop too long ..........

At the Night Market

Mt Lishan Cable Car

Xi'an - where East meets the West

Pit No.1

The warriors are so life-like

Huaqing Hot Springs

This weekend 13 of us from the group decided to take a trip to Xi'an, Shannxi Province. Called Chang'an in ancient times, Xian is one of the birthplaces of ancient civilization and 13 dynasties such as Western Zhou (11th century BC - 771 BC), Qin (221 BC - 206 BC), Western Han (206 BC - 24 AD) and Tang (618 - 907) placed their capitals here. Many tourists travel to Xi'an to see the Terracotta Warriors that were unearthed after a group of peasants found some pottery while digging for a well near the royal tomb of Qin Shi Huang in 1974. Upon ascending the throne at the age of 13 (in 246 BC), Qin Shi Huang had already begun to work on his mausoleum (which took 11 years to finish). Today the museum covers an area of 16,300 square meters, divided into three sections: No. 1 Pit, No. 2 Pit, and No. 3 Pit respectively. They were tagged in the order of their discoveries. No. 1 Pit is the largest, first opened to the public on China's National Day, 1979. Seeing the warriors was definitely top of our list of things to do in Xi'an.

We took the overnight train from Lanzhou on Friday night and arrived in Xi'an on Saturday morning. After checking in we all went our separate ways for breakfast. I'd like to say that we all resisted the temptation to have McD's and Starbucks ......... We then took a bus to see the Terracotta Warriors. Afterwards we visited the Huaqing Hot Springs. These Springs were a popular retreat with Emperors more than 2500 years ago. The legend says that in the Qing Dynasty Emperor Xuan Zong fell in love with an ordinary girl, Yang Guifei, after whom the Springs are named in honour of her beauty. Xi'an also has a large Muslim area with many excellent restaurants and a very good market. The next day some of us visited the Big Goose Pagoda before doing some serious shopping in the market. The train back was a little cramped, but fortunately most of us were so tired that we slept all the way home.