Terra Cotta Warriors in Xian

Here comes another long blog!

After spending a week in Tianijn with Per’s parents, it was time to move on to other things! We had run out of things to see and places to eat, so we decided to head to Beijing a day early before we headed off to Xi’An to see the Terra Cotta Warriors.

Beijing

The Summer Palace

After taking the train to Beijing from Tianjin, we headed to our hotel, The Holiday Inn Central Plaza, checked in, and headed by taxi to the Summer Palace.
It was a warm day, and because of the vacation week (China’s 60th Birthday) it was PACKED with people. We walked around for about 2 hours and enjoyed the sights. It is a magnificent place, and it is clear why the emperors and important people wanted to spend time there. It is SO huge, so it would take hours more to explore all the buildings, but we did the basic sights. “Been there, done that” tourism as I like to call it.

Some pictures from the summer palace:

Ya Show Market

After the Summer Palace, we headed to Sanlitun, the weastern part of Beijing, ate some lunch and took Per’s parent to the market place. I think they really liked it although the bargaining was hard to get used to for them.

Per and I are excellent bargainers (in my opinion) and we have a lot of fun doing it! We often get people telling us we are very tough, and I think that that is probably true…but I’m sure they still make a killing off of us J We make a good team though!

Here is a great picture of Per and I mid bargain:

Then we had to head back to the hotel and get some sleep because Tuesday morning we were going to head to the Silk Market to do some more shopping and then catch a plane to Xi’An!

Xi’An

We arrived in Xi’An late Tuesday night. The rainy weather and the darkness contributed to our major tourist mistake…taking a black taxi…dun dun dun! We were already in the taxis and driving toward the hotel before Per’s mom realized there was no qualifications for the driver on the dashboard as there usually is, and only a few seconds later the driver handed me a paper with the prices from the airport…220 RMB. What? No meter? He laughed…and simply replied…no meter. OK THEN! So I called Per, who was in the cab behind us, and asked him what to do. To late to do much but go along for the ride, hope we get there safe, and learn our lesson.

Xi’An is kinda a dark dirty city, not nearly as clean or “nice” as Tianjin or Beijing. But we weren’t here to see the city but to see the Terra Cotta Warriors!

Day 1 : Terra Cotta Warrior Tour

Wednesday morning we were picked up at 8AM by a tour guide, Bruce, in a very 70s van with Mr. Down, the driver.

- The Big Goose Pagoda
Our first stop on the tour was the Big Goose Pagoda and the Thanks Giving Temple! The story behind this temple escapes me, but I believe it had something to do with an emperor’s mother dying during birth and praying for food and getting goose heads from Buddha.

The temple and pagoda:

Per and I in front of the Buddha responsible for granting children…we have an announcement to make everyone…JUST KIDDING…not yet J

Per and his twin Happy Buddha. I’ve always loved men with bodies like a god…that is why I love Per, he has a body like a god…Buddha!

- Other Stops on the Tour
On our tour we also visited a jade factory, the remnants of a 6000 year old civilization, a silk making place, a place where they make terra cotta warrior copies, AND an authentic Chinese restaurant full of other tourist groups.

-The Terra Cotta Warriors
Finally we made it to the Terra Cotta Warrior museum!

The story goes something like: Emperor Qing united all of China and wanted to be buried with an army to protect his soul so he had a bunch of warriors made.

I’ll just post some pictures…not too much more to say about it really. It was pretty neat though.

Bronze statues:

Warrior up close:

Pit 3 - the most impressive pit

Also, outside the warrior museum you could purchase skins…of dogs and cats:

Our tour guide and bus driver in front of our first class transportation:

Day 2 : Wandering the Rainy City

After deciding to “sleep in”, we headed out into the rain to check out the major attractions in Xi’An city: The Bell Tower and The Drum Tower. They ring the bell in the morning and bang the drum at night.

Some pics:

We wandered into the Muslim district of the city to do some more bargain shopping and also checked out The Great Mosque…which looks more like a Chinese temple than a mosque besides the Arabic writing here and there and the people walking around with Muslim hats on.

Then I dragged Per and his parents to what the “Lonely Planet” called the “most famous restaurant in Xi’An” for a “fantastic” and “absolutely delicious” soup which your crumble flat bread into.

Here is Per crumbling his flat bread:

Well, besides the place being run down, the food was NOT all that the book made it out to be, and in addition there were two absolutely disgusting individuals SPITTING on the restaurant floor which pretty much made me wanna barf into my nasty soup…which looked like throw up anyway with all the bread chunks floating in it. FAIL. Probably why Per looks so miserable in the picture above..he looked even worse after. Thank god for McDonald’s cheeseburgers.

After the slightly traumatic lunch experience which I had to smile through, I had had enough of the rainy crowdy pretty-nasty city and went back to the hotel. Per and his parents decided to follow a few minutes later, probably realizing how genius I was to go home J

For dinner we went to a dumpling dinner and a show. The dumplings were good but we were very rushed, and the show was entertaining but maybe a little too modern and not traditional enough for me to really buy it.

Some pictures from the show:

Tomorrow we head back to Beijing for a few more days of sightseeing before Per’s parents go back to Sweden. Two days later, I meet my parents in Japan! Busy busy!

P.S. MY BIRTHDAY IS TOMORROW