Days Hotel Xian Xi'an

... I did NOT make up this name. This Budhist temple was built in 600 B.C. How did it get it's name, you ask? Well, there are several stories about this, but the one I liked best is that a monk was travelling and had no water. He was so thirsty and had been without water for so long, that he was about to die. At that very moment a goose was flying by and pointed the way to water, saving the monk's life. So, when the monk built the pagoda he named it the Big Wild ...

... were so unbelievably anal about eating certain things in certain places. Every place, no matter how small, will have its local specialty. When a place has a history as long as China's (a fact of which locals are inordinately fond of reminding me) the specialties are actually usually pretty damn special. Unless you are in Guangdong, in which case the specialties are downright scary and would cause most sensible people I know to vomit at the very thought of them. Seriously ...

... the daughter. <br><br>Along the ramparts there were old wooden weapons like a wagon and catapults there were also some cannons. There were two buildings. One was closed (could rent bikes or hire a ride on the motorized cart in front of it) and the one that was open had a photo gallery on the first floor. We were able to walk up to the 2nd floor, but the 3rd floor was closed. <br><br>The walls of the city were made with rammed earth, quicklime and rice extract. Along the wall there are ...

... Drum Tower, the Muslim quarter and its Great Mosque. Before taking a rest in the afternoon, I spent the whole morning and lunchtime around these places. Take a look at the pictures to get an impression of Xi'an city! Part II of my Xi'an blog will then be devoted to the Terracotta Army of Warriors, the Banpu Museum and a tomb site.

... how low the price can go, up to less than a quarter of their asking price. I made some good buys and really had a sense of accomplishment after I leave. Tomorrow I will be taking a flight to Shanghai and will arrive there in the afternoon. I'm really looking forward to taking the Maglev train from the airport to the city. Apparently the train can hit a top speed of 430km/hr! Alright, I will write an entry tomorrow night from Shanghai. Good night!

... one an idea of the magnitude of the whole project. It's worth noting that among the 8,000 warriors discovered so far, no two facial features are alike, each solider is unique. This was also a very important site for historians as it gave them a keen understanding of battle formations of the time. After freezing for several hours and completely drenched, we headed back to the hostel.

... amazing and no amount of words can truly described their magnitude. Of course it begs the question of why we humans feel the need to try to take everything with us when we die. But enough philosophical pondering, the clay warriors of Xi'an are spectacular and worth visiting. The city of Xi'an itself is impressive as well. It is one of the few Chinese cities with intact fortress walls protecting the city for centuries ...

... It all went in suprisingly easily which was when I realised that almost all of my clothes were still at the laundry! By the time I had collected it, repacked in the hotel lobby, stored my bag and went for food it was 2pm. I realised that I didn't have enough time to do anything that I wanted to do that day, such as renting a bicycle to ride along the city walls, as my train left at 6pm. I wandered around for a couple of hours before heading to Starbucks to sit outside in the ...

... a story book with loads of traditional buildings (Du gongs?) that truly are quite special. We managed to join a tour through the hostel to see the Terracotta Warriors as well as an ancient Chinese settlement that dated back to 6000 BC. Anyway, the Warriors were fantastic, very imposing and historically ghostly if there is such a description. The only draw back was the weather.....being overcast didnt make for great ...

... Each warrior is an exact replica of a soldier, who fought and lived 200BC. In their time they had seen the unification of China, the invention of gunpowder, paper, writing, astrology etc. Their emperor had unified China from 6 different regions into one and had introduced a monetary, counting and measuring system for all to use as the standard. We could only see a replica of the tomb itself and that was also amazing. The things that were buried with ...