Our Itinerary!
Trip Start
Jun 18, 2008
1
31
46
Trip End
Sep 04, 2008
Xi'an,
Shaanxi,
China
Sunday, August 24, 2008
All in the next month! Wow! I am so unbelievably excited to travel non-stop for the next four weeks. We may be exhausted by the end, but we have so many incredible trips planned.
For the beginning parts in China, we are sort of flying by the seat of our pants because it is difficult to reserve train tickets. The train company releases the tickets 10 days in advance and then third-party ticket sellers snap them up and then charge an extra service fee. To leave Beijing for Xi'an we only got soft seat tickets. We antincipated it being miserble but not insufferable. However, once we boarded the train we realized the seats were nothing more than a cushioned bench with little to no personal space. For a 13 hour trip. I promised not to complain but not that I would like it.
Luckily, Adam asked the conductor if there were any available sleeper tickets where you get a bed. The only one remaining on the sold out train was the best of the best. I haven't been feeling 100% and knew how important sleep vs. no sleep would be and jumped at the chance to upgrade. Ignoring the steep 600 RMB that I was spending on the very first leg of our trip. Oh well. It was just me and one other man in a private 2-person bunk with our own ensuite bathroom. How luxurious. No matter. I slept while Adam and Jason did not. Though it was amusing while I was still sitting among the common people to watch Adam reach ultimate celebrity status as he had conversations with the other riders in Chinese. I even named the girl sitting across from me Abby, in honor of my sister, because the girl wanted a "cute" English name.
This morning we arrived in Xi'an and decided, somewhat skeptically, to put our trust in an English-speaking Chinese woman who wanted to take us to our hostel. It's right downtown and her brochure had a Lonely Planet recommendation, so we went for it, and our very pleased with the hostel. From the reception area, you can see the central Bell Tower. So the location is unbeatable and the private 3-bed room is totally adequate. And of course the hostel life is interesting. I think we may be the only Americans among the white foreigners.
Today we went to the Terracotta warrior museum once we showered and shook off our lack of sleep. It's an hour bus-ride outside the city, and everything looks brand new. Unlike the Great Wall where no matter how many pictures you see, being there in real life is unimaginably awesome, seeing images of the terracotta warriors sort of diminished the effect of seeing them in person. They are all housed in a pit in a building that resembles a giant airplane hangar. However, it's still cool and absolutely still worth seeing.
What people find so fascinating about the terracotta warriors is how all records of their existence was lost so that they really are a relatively new discovery (1974). The workers were buried alive with the secret of their life's work of creating the emperor's clay army so he'd have protection in the afterlife. Also, people love to talk about how cool it is that the army's faces have distinct details and intricate features, which is cool if you look at individual warriors in the grand sea of them. Anyway, for those who may not envision themselves traveling to China in the near future, you may see a few warriors when they travel to Atlanta's High Museum for their first North American exhibition.
Tonight we are going to a Muslim night market, and tomorrow who knows? More to come, though, for sure!
