Xian - 7th December 2011

Ok.. so where did I leave you? Somewhere in Yichang I think.. So we caught the train that arvo to Xi'an. Pros from the train; heaters, quieter carriage, discovered a western toilet several carriages down so did not have to use a squat toilet. Cons: the heating was a little too much, one of the group snored us awake all night and if it wasn't him snoring, it was very loud baby cries. So got off the train in Xi'an just after 7am feeling less than refreshed and it was raining (meaning we couldn't hire bikes to the city walls), and also a freezing 3 degrees celsius.

Gloves and scarves on mid-morning we headed down the road to the Muslim Quarter and wandered through, slowly browsing the fare on offer (mainly dried fruit). As the ancient capital Xi'an was the start of the silk road, opening trade up to central asia, Xi'an has a distinctive muslim influence. The muslim chinese look different to the Han chinese with bigger noses, eyes and whiter skin. We then walked past the Drum Tower enroute to a burger restaurant for lunch. Outside of the muslim quarter but still within the city walls is a restaurant reknowned for the 'chinese burger' - literally salty pork in a scone-like bun. But I was starving and for only 8 yuan, I was pretty happy with my burger, After lunch we headed to the City Walls. The 40 yuan entrance fee is well worth the expense as the city walls are a key part of chinese history, and enabled us to see firsthand the impressive defenses of the old city. The walls are roughly 20m high and watchtowers were placed every 120m along the 14km walls. The 120m distance was because the archers arrows could fly 60m so the 120m stretches were defended by archers at each watchtower. During the cultural revolution, city walls from other chinese cities were destroyed. It was decided that the Xi'an walls be kept as they were the longest and therefore the most impressive. In the 3 degree bitter cold, we wandered along the city walls a little bit before heading back to the muslim quarter and their street market.

One of the challenges for the tour group is a secret santa type thing when you have to haggle a gift to 10 yuan at the muslim quarter markets to be picked by another group member. I hate haggling, and 10 yuan is nothing so it is hard to find a nice (and unisex!) gift. I really wanted to find a quality spinning top game (traditional chinese) or bargain down a calligraphy brush and ink, but the vendors laughed in my face when i suggested 10 yuan. 45min later, the others had all purchased their presents and were eager to get back to the hotel into hot showers. I felt like crying because I am the most useless haggler and i'm not a fan of fake stuff and souveniers, so my tour mate kindly did some haggling for me and got a chinese style bottle opener (because there are some pretty keen drinkers in the group!)

Later that night, we headed out for 'dumpling banquet', an expensive (100yuan) but amazing feast of dumplings - there are 16 different flavours to try. I skipped out the less appealing flavours, but my favourites were duck, scallop, walnut sweet dumpling, cabbage and boiled dumpling with pork filling,

Today, we were on a bus at 8am heading out to the Terracotta Warriors. This was truly breathtaking. There are three pits, the first big is the biggest and is 200m long x 60m wide - huge! The locals in this area used to be very poor, but since the discovery of the terracotta warriors, the families here are wealthy. The warriors were crafted 2000 years ago in order to protect the tomb of the first emperor of China. The first emperor unified the separate kingdoms within the country and standardardised characters (language), measures etc. so is hugely respected by modern chinese. Each warrior looks a little different - it is thought that they were based on actual soldiers of the time. The soldiers are also all facing east, as the city Xi'an is in the north-west, so facing east symbolises the unification of China as all the other kingdoms were in the east. We took photos then went through pits 3 (much smaller) and 2 (yet to be fully excavated until the excavation of pit 1 is complete). It was then lunchtime and we headed to a place in town where we had the biggest, most amazing bowls of noodles in my life - so good!

After lunch, about half the crew decided to head to the Shaanxi History Musuem (a bit of a let down for those who can't read chinese) and the Big Goose Pagoda. In the evening I was stoked to bump into another couple of kiwis at our hotel on the tour running in the opposite direction - it is amazing how hearing the familiar kiwi accent makes any homesick pangs go away :) Then at 7.30pm our group met at the hotel; most were going to a tour organised kareoke sesh, and the rest of us decided that 160 yuan excluding drinks was a bit much for kareoke, so four of us headed down to the muslim quater to find some dinner. On our way we passed the square and saw dancing and roller blading/skating. So we hired roller skates for 10 yuan and hung out at the square for a couple of hours (this is a fun, cheap must-do if you are heading to Xi'an). We then headed to the muslim quarter and decided to buy and share different snacks on offer. We shared vege dumplings, sweet cake filled with red bean, spicy tofu skewers, barbequed quail egg, tempura flash-fried veges, this disgusting mashed potao tasting thing (we only got it because it looked like exotic fudge), and while I was too full, the other girls got spicy beef in fried bread - a common snack in the muslim quarter.

Tomorrow we have until 3.30pm in Xi'an before catching the train to Shanghai and have already seen the key sites in Xi'an. I am craving some good exercise and time to myself so I am planning on walking the perimeter of the city walls (maybe one day I could do the famous Xi'an marathon which circuits the impressive city walls).

I thought that I would include some of the annoyances of travelling China so far, to give you at home an idea of what it is like:
1. Squat toilets that smell like they haven't been cleaned in forever
2. Crazy, crazy drivers are the norm here (must be why they get the rep in NZ?) - no indicating, no giving way to pedestrians even when it is the pedestrians right of way on crossings - have had some close calls
3. People sneakily take photos of you because you look different - you will be posing for a photo for your own/friends camera and look around and realise all the other cameras pointed in your direction
4. Pesky touts who spot a westerner and see dollar signs

But,in saying that, I am in awe of the locals dancing in the square, young and old out and enjoying the nightlife, practicing tai chi or doing exercises in the park in the early morning, dressing to the nines 24/7, trying their best to speak in english to us tourists :)