Cherry Blossom Adventures

After Beijing we headed to Xian for two nights. Xian was one of China`s capital cities…it is considered one of the four great ancient capital cities of China because thirteen dynasties were here.We explored a little by ourselves on the first day and it was a lot more relaxing than Beijing had been just because there was less people (and no people jumping on you trying to sell you something!) and we actually had a little bit of time to ourselves. We went to the old bell tower which used to be used to signal the opening of the city wall and start of the day.

Our hotel was directly across the road from what they called the new city square and in the mornings when I looked out the window (at 7am) there were about 60 or so people doing Taichi, some others swimming in the fountain and others playing badminton. And there I was thinking it was way to early for anyone to be up let alone be up and doing exercise.

On our second day in Xian we visited the old city wall which was re-established in the Ming Dynasty (1370) however was originally built something like 2000 years ago. It was built to keep out enemies etc and you could see some of the really old weapons they used and also the windows where archers used to sit.

Before arriving at the terracotta warriors we stopped at a factory to see how they were made. The same process that they used 2100 years ago is what they use today. I found it amazing that 2100 years ago they thought to put the terracotta in a kiln to make it last. I bought a mini one for James as a gift and I also bought a Mahjong set for Shun at the factory (Well mum payed for it!)

The actual terracotta warriors were amazing. There really is no other word to describe them. Only discovered in 1974 when some farmers were digging a well during a drought (The whole area was farmland). The first emperor of the Qin Dynasty, Qin Shi Huangdi built the army to guard his tomb and not one of the guards has the same hairstyle or facial expression as another. A lot of it was destroyed early on when it is said that General Xiang Yu and his army raided the tomb burning a lot of the wooden structures inside and looting many of the other areas destroying most of the army. But despite this when they were discovered in the 70`s most of them were still in various states of preservation…While a lot of them have now been restored you could still see different areas where the army was missing limbs or heads or knocked over. There are three vaults inside and the first one is the biggest with most of the warriors inside having already been restored. They are all lined up in army formation and the whole thing was just so cool to see.

That night we went to see a Tang Dynasty Cultural Show which displayed traditional dance and music from that period. The costumes, staging and lighting was amazing….We walked around the new city square later on that night. We had small children running up to us to say hello and practice there English. There was also millions of people rollerskating around and swimming in the fountain!

We ran out of time on the day we went to see the terracotta warriors to visit the Xian National Museum (Shaanxi History Museum) so we went on our last day. It has something like 300,000 artifacts dating from caveman times. IT was really interesting to see how the way they made things changed through the dynasties but I think my mum liked this museum a lot more than me.

We finished our time in Xian by enjoying a dumpling lunch!!!

Can you see the ones shaped like ducks?

We then boarded a overnight train to Shanghai…I think mum and I both agree that this is the last time we will ever catch an overnight sleeper train in China…It was definitely an experience though! I will try and get the update of Shanghai early in the week!

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