Kempinski Hotel Xian Xi'an

... think 1370. A rectangular shape, 14 kilometres perimeter and maybe 90 metres high. We had fabulous views of the city whilst trying to ignore the smog!<br><br>Sat.30th May.<br><br>An early start to see an amazing historic sight. The Terracotta Army and Mount Li, the tomb of the First Emperor, who built the first Great Wall, a ruthless ruler who united <br><br>China and now dominates in the afterlife. We'll never ever forget the sights we saw today. Absolutely fantastic.

Hi everyone! Sorry we haven't written in awhile. Our internet access is a little bit more limited than at the hotels. I will try to catch you up: Our last morning in Xian we rode bikes on the city wall. It is around 700 years old and as wide as a street. It comletely encloses the downtown area, or inner city. We rented bikes, and Lauren and Julia were even brave enough to ridea 2-seater. We couldn't ride all the ...

... to viewing from the very edge of the excavation which is about 3m above the statues. Again our camera came into its own by allowing us to zoom right in for the details, but it took a bit of the edge off the experience. What took me back more than I had expected, was the number of the soldiers who had been destroyed over the years. There are literally hundreds of spaces where a soldier should stand, but instead all that lies there is a pile of rubble. There are ...

... follow me. Soon after waving my goodbyes I finally found a China Mobile store that could help me with my 'recharging' problems. This one, (instead of using a computer and telling me they couldn't help me because they couldn't access Shaowu City in Fujian Province) simply pulled out some recharge cards, called a number and input the code on the card. Wallah, within one minute I was recharged! Gee, what ...

... was quite good. We took a cab back to our hotel. This was the first really bad cab driver we had. He certainly gave us a thrill ride, and we were grateful to get back in one piece! Tomorrow, we have a busy day planned. We want to rent bicycles and ride them around the top of the city wall, and visit the Moslem quarter, the Bell Tower, and The Drum Tower. Also, we want to plan our last day in Xian tomorrow. We are having such a great time---Thanks, Frank!!!!!

... We went to get Jana a swatch watch. The guy had tried to sell us the same watch during our morning run for 100 yuan but ended up yelling out 20 as we were walking away. However, when we went back to actually buy it. He upped his price to 280 Yuan!! More than double his original price that morning. We told him that was ridiculous because we had been there this morning...after a couple times walking away, he finally gave us the watch for 20. 280 to 20! People if ...

... They are concerned about loosing all of the paint finishes. In one of the pictures you can make out some yellow coloring on one of the soldiers collars along with a hint of red on the uniform. After the Museum, we went to see the Big Wild Goose Pagoda and the surrounding grounds. Here we came across monks participating in one of their daily chanting rituals. The chanting was interesting to hear and they had it broadcast ...

... eyes. Over 6,000 lifesize soldiers made out of terracota lined up in battle formation in a series of 3 different pits. The story goes that the first ever emperor of China had them made over 2000 years ago to guard his tomb and also to demonstrate his power. Every soldier is different in size, height, facial features and stance ... it really is fantastic and is not hard to understand why it took over 37 years to complete. When the soldiers were discovered back in ...

... Zajímavostí jsou zde tunu vázící zlatí draci na st&#345;echách. Bohuzel za&#269;íná slusn&#283; prset a tak odpoledne p&#345;e&#269;káme skrývaje se v interiérech (a rozhovorem s hlída&#269;em, který dokonce ví o roce 68 v CSSR). Kdyz to kone&#269;n&#283; vypadá, ze dés&#357; slábne, vyrázíme na zhruba 8km cestu vrátit kola. Cestou ale za&#269;ne op&#283;t brutáln&#283; prset, coz spolu s 20cm hlubokou &#345;ekou na silnicích ústí v totální promo&#269;ení vseho a hlavn&#283 ...

... we were about to load up the truck Rikki asked us to disappear for an hour as the brakes on the truck had suddenly stopped working (minor detail). However, the hour turned into the morning and it was decided we should carry on without Rikki and the truck as we were losing too much time and had a tight schedule ahead of us. We chartered a local coach, which is about one up from third class public transport, and got some kms behind us. <br><br ...