Xi'an, China Travel Blogs

Communist China
Aug 21, 2004

... so late and neither of us speak a word of Chinese! So we finally arrive in Xian airport in Communist, highly bureaucratic China ready for the harshest customs inspection ever and are whizzed through, no questions, no waiting, no bag checks - by FAR, the ...

Worlds heaviest library??
Jan 23, 2005 (6 photos)

In the morning I went to the Forest of Stone Tablets, a museum with the heaviest collection of books in the world being that they're all made of gigantic stone tablets, some ten feet high, and there are 2300 of them! Then I got in trouble for taking ...

Beijing to Xi'an
Aug 1, 2007 (19 photos)

... differences in culture and dress was very interesting and we tried some of the food from the street vendors. Our stop over in Xi'an was only a flying visit and we stayed only one night there.  Next stop is Chengdu in the Sichuan Province.  ...

Terra-Cotta Warriors
Jan 21, 2005 (5 photos)

Arriving in Xi'an by overnight train, I introduce myself to my new dorm roommates at 8 am by toppling over the nightstand enroute to my bed and awaking everyone in the room! I was staying in a mixed dorm and my rommates were very nice - a Chinese girl, a ...

The Illness
Aug 12, 2006 (5 photos)

... Scotland. We had a bunch of beers in the hotel bar, then went out into the night. After strolling through the Xi'an red light district - a rather sweaty and unpleasant affair where the ladies wear thick tights that almost disguise the horrific rashes on ...

A Terracotta Christmas
Dec 25, 2006 (1 photos)

... but it wasn't snowing. The translation came to us over the airplane public address amid the groans of the Chinese passengers-no landing in Xi'an yet, bad weather. Fog, to be exact. There were five of us from Foshan on the flight, Dan and I as well ...

Xi'an, Ancient Capital of China
May 22, 2007 (6 photos)

... bread, the smaller the peaces the better. The next day Mimi wanted to see the tomb of the only woman emperor of China. It is far from Xi'an but her name was Wu. Wu is a common name when spelled in English but the Chinese character for the emperor's ...

Into mainland China finally
May 4, 2008 (3 photos)

... my sight a good 40 kms from the airport, but it turned out to be the most convenient system I've ever used. On to Xi'an, I get in after dinner and meet up with Christine (from Cape Town) and her friend Nadia (living in Shenzen but from South ...

The thousand year old anciet capital
Aug 11, 2006 (10 photos)

It's not all anymore after China's reconstrunction.

Lots of soldiers, and great food.
Nov 21, 2005 (8 photos)

... lame yes, but i didn't mention this to anyone else. factish update! a couple of thousand years ago, some power hungry tyrant united china (through war and death), then used 750 000 people over 30 or 40 years to build himself a tomb about 50sq km in size. ...

Xian and the Terracotta Soldiers
May 5, 2008 (20 photos)

... some famous hot springs where the actual spa area is awful but the complex is amazing.  After a brief tour we head back to Xi'an where we check out the city wall which makes the city so unique.  We walk around the city and head to an old ...

Terracotta Warriors Day
Jun 26, 2008 (23 photos)

Today we were up at 7am ready for our visit to the home of some former tough guys! It was an early start this morning as we headed off to see the Terracotta Warriors. First stop on the way was to the Terracotta Warriors factory. This is where they are ...

underbellies
Oct 5, 2007 (9 photos)

... china. and sure enough, not one of the officials so much as blinked as i handed my ticket around. mission accomplished. i'm in xi'an now. i'm staying at a hostel that's affiliated with the hostels that i stayed at in both beijing and pingyao...and i've ...

Xi'an Army of Terracotta Warriors
May 19, 2007

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Hidden Army
May 7, 2006 (5 photos)

... more than a mound but no doubt so much more if it is ever excavated with supposedly lakes of liquid mercury inside. Back in Xi'an we all headed to the Muslim snack street for some dinner with the others trusting the fact that I was still upright and ...

Day 28
Oct 12, 2006 (9 photos)

... were off to the Terracotta Army. It's about away from Xi'an so the 7 of us walked down to the bus station to catch a bus. Xi'an has a city within a city, the most central part (about 15 square kilometres) of Xi'an is walled off. The wall itself is quite ...

We are Terracotta Warriors
Feb 20, 2009 (26 photos)

... seat so as to have room to spread out. Was only a 6 hour journey and ther was even a toilet stop. When we got to Xi'an we somehow negotiated a taxi ride across town, another mentalist taxi driver, as they all seem to be. Xi'an isnt as pretty as Pingyao, ...

China - Xi'an
Jun 3, 2007 (38 photos)

The overnight train from Beijing to Xi'an was fairly luxurious, comfortable and surprisingly quiet, but for some reason we still didn't get much sleep. In fact, Verdi didn't get a wink!   Regardless of this fact, when we arrived in Xi'an the first ...

Terracotta Warriors
Jun 10, 2006 (4 photos)

Entry to follow

Day 27
Oct 11, 2006 (2 photos)

I didn't feel very well this morning, I don't know whether it was last night's beer, weeks of spicy oriental food, or the post-club McDonald's but something wasn't right. I read on the internet that North Korea had been detected detonating nuclear weapons ...

Two more days in Xi'an
Jun 11, 2005

Friday 10 June: Today was a free day in the ancient old city of Xi'an: a chance to explore. A few of us headed out early to catch Tai Chi in the park outside the city walls - Chinese generally seem to have a healthy approach to exercise and early ...

XI'AN
Aug 27, 2008 (11 photos)

Couldn't get a train to Xi'an (walled city, steeped in history, main stop to view terracotta warriors). They were full up with post-Olympic fans and athletes, so we flew in the end. When we arrived in the city centre, we asked a  ...

The Sound of 'Cruddy' Music
May 9, 2006 (2 photos)

Thinking I'd done good and had got up early I was still rushing to the supermarket at the last minute to grab some supplies for the train journey after Idan & Lihi had already been. Although food is served on the train the look of the gelatinous pans of ...

Home of the Terricotta Warriors
Jul 11, 2005

... in Chinese as what it is in English! Only 16 hours though, so it wasn't too long in the scheme of things for China. Xi'An is a heavily polluted city, but a welcoming city with it's easy grid layout and efficient bus service. The heart of the city is ...

Northern China - A Beast of a Blog - Part I
Oct 2, 2008 (22 photos)

... sat in the bar and watched a slightly dodgy copy of the Hulk while the clothes washed and dried and organised train tickets to Xi'An... our next destination...  The next day we went to the Bund fairly early, hoping that even if we missed out on ...

Xi'an - The Old Capital of China
May 15, 2008 (21 photos)

Xi'an has been the capital of China (under another name - Chang'an, literally means "Perpetual Peace") of 13 dynasties, including the Zhou, Qin, Han, the Sui Dynasty and the Tang, so it is recognized as one of the four great ancient capitals of China. It ...

"Hello... just looking"
Feb 22, 2008 (4 photos)

· Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China · GMT + 8hrs Tick tock This is probably not a good thing to admit but hey, here goes; as soon as we got off the overnight train from Beijing to Xi'an we were trying to organise our way out of the city. I had initially ...

Birthday in Xi'an
Oct 13, 2005 (5 photos)

... to go out again tonight. With very little to do we decided to walk to the Big Goose pagoda on the other side of the wall. Xi'an has a wall running around the outside of the city. The LP map was decidedly out-of-scale again and the walk was much longer ...

Incredibly boring day
Oct 14, 2005

... the lobby for one in the hotel. Dave was still gone when I had finished so I went off in search. Net cafes in China are now supposed to have their entrances disguised because the Chinese have a tendency to play games for 12 hours straight. As you can ...

Xylophone Xi'an
Jul 28, 2005 (2 photos)

... in Lhasa we were greeted by a very enthutiastic Ni Hao!!!!, it was the snoring man again..but luckily he wasn't in our dorm. Yep, Xi'an's city wall is still intact (or should I say reconstructed) and runs in a 20km square around the center of town. A great ...