Xi'an (November 24-27)

When we got to Xi'an, we met a lovely girl from the Czech named Lu who was staying in our dorm. We ended up touring around Xi'an with her for a few days. One the first day, we visited the Bell and Drum Towers, which are local city tourist attractions.



The Twisted Forest

The next day we took hopped on a bus and travelled just outside of town to see the Tomb of Qin (from the Qin Dynasty) and the Terra Cotta Warriors. The warriors were AMAZING! Rows and rows of life-size clay warriors, built over 2000 years ago were just sitting underneath a farmer's field, completely undiscovered until the 1970's. There are almost 6000 of them and they cover a ridiculously large area of land! It was pretty unbelievable. Imagine being the lucky sucker who was digging a well and found them! hehehe...


Terra Cotta Warriors Close-up of a Warrior



These officers wanted to have their picture taken with us...who is the tourist here?

The following day, we set out early in the morning to climb a mountain just outside of Xi’an called Hua Shan. Unfortunately, by the time we got to the base of the mountain, it was raining so hard that we couldn't climb. But the mountain looked beautiful from the bottom!! It turned out to be a pretty good day anyway!


The surplus of labour in China leads to sights such as this...

Xi'an itself is an ancient city with tons of character. Their are several sights with historical significance, but the best part of the city was the muslim quarter.

Their are actually millions of muslims in China and in Xi'an they are central to the tourism. Two intersecting streets made up the muslim quarter in which you could find some of the best restaurants in town, presuming you enjoy spicy pork kebabs and milk tea.


Tasty fruit treat


The three nights in Xi'an went by very quickly and before we knew it, we were off to Chengdu.