Xi'an

My family came to visit me for the past ten days! While they were here, I worked and explored bits of China with them. I went with them to see sites that I have previously seen (Great Wall, Hutongs, Lama Temple and the markets). I also got to explore a new site with them...Xi'an.

Recently they opened up the bullet train to go to Xi'an. Previously they was only the over night train, or you could fly. But taking the train is always cheaper! My mom and sister wanted to experience the Bullet train so this offered the perfect opportunity. When we arrived in Xi'an we were greeted by my dad and our own personal tour guide. (My dad knows people so we got the royal treatment!)

After arriving in Xi'an we walked around this street named Muslim Street. It had all types of shops and restaurants where you could be tourist souvenirs. After this we went to the Wild Goose Pagoda. The Pagoda was built in honor of sackamoney (I know I spelt that wrong!). It was very hot in Xi'an (38 degrees C or 100 degrees F) so we didn't spend too much time at the Pagoda. Enough time to take some pictures and then go back to the air condition car!

 After the Pagoda we went to the Tang Dynasty Song and Dance show. The show was very interesting. People were dressed in the traditional costumes of the Tang Dynasty. They also performed dances and songs that were played during that time period.

 After the show we decided to walk around the square at night. The drum and bell tower were beautiful at night!

The next morning we started off early at the Ancient City Wall. The wall was constructed around the 1500's. It is the oldest surviving city wall in China. Xi'an was China's capital city for thousands of years. The city wall is 13 kilometers around the city. You can either walk or bike along the wall. We choose just to explore the section we were on!

 After exploring the city wall for an hour. We drove out to the Terracotta Warriors. Some back history about the Warriors. The Warriors were built as part of an underground city. Emperor Xin built in 210 BC. (Very old!) The Emperor wanted to make sure that he was protected in his afterlife. He built his mausoleum and surrounding the mausoleum he built armies of Warriors. They remained undiscovered until the 1970's when two local farmers found a piece of a warrior while digging for a well. Since then they have unearth 8000 warriors and have discovered 5 pits. Three of the pits are open to the public. They are still unearthing more warriors. One of the issues they have while working is the amount of dust and toxins in the air have caused five people to die of lung cancer. So they are very cautious about working in the Pits.Who knows how many warriors are underneath the ground. The mausoleum of Emperor Xin still remains unopened. He created his underground tomb to have hundreds of river of mercury. They can not open the tomb up for fear it would kill the people opening and also they are afraid all the treasures will be damaged. So they wait until new technology is available.

Beach Weekend!

My adventures continue as I headed to the beach over the weekend! I started off by taking a very Chinese slow train out to the sea. The train was very interesting. Contained squat toilet restrooms and people carrying a huge kettle of steaming hot water to give to passenger for their tea and cup of noodles. The town we were headed to was only two and half hours east of Beijing. It is called Beidaihe.

After arriving at the train station, all these people starting yelling at us asking us if we wanted a taxi. There were people holding signs with pictures of their hotel and restaurant signs. Easily we got a taxi that took us to our hotel. Our hotel was very Chinese. It only cost us 116 rmb a night (22 usd). The room was very dusty and dirty. We found random nuts on the ground. The shower head was literally over the toilet and we couldn't even imagine putting paper in the toilet! We had to wear our shoes the entire time we were in the room. But for three girls sharing a room it was fine, we were hardly in it!

Beidaihe is a beach resort town. It resembled any other beach town that I have been to. One of the main expectation to this was it was a beach resort town catered to the Russians and Chinese. There were Russian signs everywhere, and all the Chinese people tried speaking Russian to us! They got angry at us when we started speaking Chinese to them. Eventually we told them we were American and that seemed to do the trick! I think we were the only Americans in the town.

The beach was beautiful! Right before going, I had horror stories of green water and trashy sand. The beach was the complete opposite of it! The skies were blue and the water was gorgeous! I loved being by the ocean!

 We were bordering the Bohai Sea.

 It was a great day for a swim! The water was so calm! There were barely any waves!

 While we were in Beidaihe was decided to travel north to Shanguian to see Old Dragon's Head. That is where the Great Wall meets the sea! This was my fourth time the wall and I was just as excited to see it the fourth time as I was the first time! Where the wall meets the sea was very impressive. The literally built the wall up into the edge of the sea. This part of the wall was built in a military complex. It had at one time been a castle. It is the only part of the Great Wall that was built in a palace. Pretty awesome.

This section of the wall goes into the Bohai Sea (which feeds into the Pacific Ocean)

 I will be going back to Beidaihe in the future! It was a relaxing weekend away from a big bustling city!