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Read Day 1
Read Day 2
Day 3
This was our view of Xi'an in the morning from our hotel room. We joined all the Japanese tourists at the buffet breakfast (good bread products and condiments and cheese, awful hot food), before checking out. Since we wanted to understand Xi'an more and it was pretty early, we decided to walk through the local neighbourhoods until we hit the drum tower and marketplace. This wasn't a mistake, but it was obvious we weren't in the richest parts of the city. I had to talk Nish out of buying a hammock (how would we have gotten it home?), while we searched for the Great Mosque which was supposed to be in the area. Instead, we ended up at a Buddhist temple that was being refurbished and did our first haggling for some jade in a nearby series of shops. From there, we made our way to the Drum tower (which, yes, has drums in it). We circled around it, hitting a cheap dvd shop which kept a puppy in a box in it (this was often the case, it seems). Then we came to the actual market place and it was just amazing. We haggled for silk robes and souvenirs. I was very pleased to pick up a gorgeous jade stamp from the last century (which even if it was a fake, was still worth the money). I had a lot of fun just haggling and taking pictures of the amazing displays of merchandise. Everything was super cheap (I got silk robes for $12) and it was just interesting to wander. We'd have stayed there all day, but eventually decided it was time to head out to Emperor Qin's tomb to see the terracotta soldiers.
The tomb is pretty far outside the city (but closer to the airport), and even reading about it never gave me the sense of scale that seeing the main pit, gave me. (A close up). We walked around the pit, taking more pics and noting the place where they were slowly piecing together more of the figures. Next up was Pit 3 with its war chariot, and high ranking officers in situ. Pit 2 was very dark, so although you could see the outlines of chariot wheels and whole pits of archers, it was very hard to photograph. I enjoyed seeing the various stages of excavation in regards to removing the collapsed roofing material of the tomb (it can be seen as rows of long humps in the main pit photo). Another building had individual finds like this amazing, mini war chariot.
Having seen the whole thing, we headed to the airport, where we grabbed a meal, then waited patiently for the (of course) delayed plane back to Beijing to take off. Once again, we arrived late in the evening at Beijing, though this time we knew enough of how to take the bus and how to walk to the hostel ourselves. It was the same one as before, so I didn't anticipate any problem, and walked in weary from our long walk and long day, but anticipating a nice evening only to discover that they'd given away our reservation and there were no cheap rooms free. I pulled out one of my copies of said reservation (annoyed that I hadn't thought to print out another copy of the actual email) and went to town in proper silent and scary way. The clerk took to hiding behind the counter as much as possible while he made phone calls and sorted things out to eventually say, "Well, yes, you did have a reservation, but we gave it away. Sorry." I then suggested very politely that they discount one of their more expensive rooms so we could spend the night since they had inconvenienced us. We'd move to the cheaper rooms when a bed became free in the morning. After some haggling (and I suspect he was telling his supervisor I was going to kill him if they didn't offer the deal), we were handed the keys of the more expensive room (which was sort of like a cheap version of a hotel room with two beds and an open shower head in the bathroom) for a lower price. We enjoyed the privacy for the evening though Nish said she never wanted me as an enemy.
Read Day 2
Day 3
This was our view of Xi'an in the morning from our hotel room. We joined all the Japanese tourists at the buffet breakfast (good bread products and condiments and cheese, awful hot food), before checking out. Since we wanted to understand Xi'an more and it was pretty early, we decided to walk through the local neighbourhoods until we hit the drum tower and marketplace. This wasn't a mistake, but it was obvious we weren't in the richest parts of the city. I had to talk Nish out of buying a hammock (how would we have gotten it home?), while we searched for the Great Mosque which was supposed to be in the area. Instead, we ended up at a Buddhist temple that was being refurbished and did our first haggling for some jade in a nearby series of shops. From there, we made our way to the Drum tower (which, yes, has drums in it). We circled around it, hitting a cheap dvd shop which kept a puppy in a box in it (this was often the case, it seems). Then we came to the actual market place and it was just amazing. We haggled for silk robes and souvenirs. I was very pleased to pick up a gorgeous jade stamp from the last century (which even if it was a fake, was still worth the money). I had a lot of fun just haggling and taking pictures of the amazing displays of merchandise. Everything was super cheap (I got silk robes for $12) and it was just interesting to wander. We'd have stayed there all day, but eventually decided it was time to head out to Emperor Qin's tomb to see the terracotta soldiers.
The tomb is pretty far outside the city (but closer to the airport), and even reading about it never gave me the sense of scale that seeing the main pit, gave me. (A close up). We walked around the pit, taking more pics and noting the place where they were slowly piecing together more of the figures. Next up was Pit 3 with its war chariot, and high ranking officers in situ. Pit 2 was very dark, so although you could see the outlines of chariot wheels and whole pits of archers, it was very hard to photograph. I enjoyed seeing the various stages of excavation in regards to removing the collapsed roofing material of the tomb (it can be seen as rows of long humps in the main pit photo). Another building had individual finds like this amazing, mini war chariot.
Having seen the whole thing, we headed to the airport, where we grabbed a meal, then waited patiently for the (of course) delayed plane back to Beijing to take off. Once again, we arrived late in the evening at Beijing, though this time we knew enough of how to take the bus and how to walk to the hostel ourselves. It was the same one as before, so I didn't anticipate any problem, and walked in weary from our long walk and long day, but anticipating a nice evening only to discover that they'd given away our reservation and there were no cheap rooms free. I pulled out one of my copies of said reservation (annoyed that I hadn't thought to print out another copy of the actual email) and went to town in proper silent and scary way. The clerk took to hiding behind the counter as much as possible while he made phone calls and sorted things out to eventually say, "Well, yes, you did have a reservation, but we gave it away. Sorry." I then suggested very politely that they discount one of their more expensive rooms so we could spend the night since they had inconvenienced us. We'd move to the cheaper rooms when a bed became free in the morning. After some haggling (and I suspect he was telling his supervisor I was going to kill him if they didn't offer the deal), we were handed the keys of the more expensive room (which was sort of like a cheap version of a hotel room with two beds and an open shower head in the bathroom) for a lower price. We enjoyed the privacy for the evening though Nish said she never wanted me as an enemy.
