Terra Cotta Warriors. The highlight of Xi'an is of course the famous and massive Terra Cotta Army that the 13 year old Qin Dynasty emperor created for his mausoleum and afterlife. This royal tomb was discovered by farmers digging a well in 1974. The life sized warriors and horses are impressive enough on their own, but the sheer size of the pits and the massive amounts of warriors and relics found in the pits is astonishing.
One of the many shopping stops on our tour was at the Terra Cotta Reproduction Factory and we had fun posing with the replica warriors.
Great Mosque and Moslem. This mosque was built during the Tang Dynasty in 742 and is a very interesting combination of Muslim and Chinese architecture and culture. Arab merchants and travelers came to China and married Chinese women and so, these Muslim Chinese people came about. Prayer services are still held at this mosque daily, well that is, 5 times a day! Silly me wore a sleeveless dress this day and I had to buy a pashmina to get in here, but it was well worth it and I got a pretty shawl out of it too.
Wild Goose Pagoda. This pagoda was built in 684 AD during the Tang Dynasty. Amazingly this pagoda has lasted all this time and through all the earthquakes. Only the top 2 levels were damaged and are now missing, so there are 13 levels to the pagoda instead of the original 15. The pagoda is surrounded by beautiful buildings and pretty park area.
Xi'an City Wall. This city wall is "the most complete city wall that has survived in China, as well being one of the largest ancient military defensive systems in the world." The city wall has four gates and I just love the Chinese names for things: the names of the gates mean eternal joy, harmony peace, eternal peace and forever harmony. We rented bicycles and rode around the entire rectangular wall. This happened to be at sunset and it was totally amazing!
Drum Tower. In ancient Xi'an the Bell Tower sounded in the morning and the Drum Tower sounded at night. These sister towers were used for the whole city's time. The Drum Tower is one of those amazing constructions that didn't use a single nail in it's construction (like the Temple of Heaven in Beijing I believe).
Traditional Chinese musical and dance performance. I loved going to the Tang Dynasty Dinner Show. The food was awesome and they served this awesome warm rice wine. The performances were completely amazing, the costumes were ornate and complicated, and the music was wonderful! This was a very interesting and entertaining insight into Chinese culture.
In Xi'an we went out with some of our new friends from the tour group one night. Our hotel was at a great location and we only had to take our life in our hands to cross the (crazy, dangerous)street and went to a couple bars in Xi'an. These bars were located on the edge of the City Wall and we could see the moat and the edge of the wall and ramparts all lit up with lights. It was one of the prettiest views I've ever drank a beer next to!
I totally loved Xi'an. It wasn't the little rural town I somehow thought it was going to be! I loved all the history of this city. Of course all the spring trees were blooming here too. The wisteria, magnolias, cherry trees and it all made the city all the more beautiful with the frothy pink, purple, yellow blossoms and the bright green of the baby leaves. Xi'an was a nice break after Beijing because even though this is a big city, everything seemed close together because it didn't take us an hour to get every single place. In fact, like I mentioned above, our hotel was in a wonderful location and we could walk to the bars, city wall and other great locations.
Shanghai is next!
1 comment:
What a wonderful place to visit. These pictures have really told the story of your trip and the culture. So amazing. Brad's true colors were coming out in his funny picture. Brad looks like he is going to the set of "The Last Samurai"! Your pashmina is gorgeous. Fun, fun.
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