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Xian
Xian's Inner City
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September 11, 2002 Took off for the airport and arrived in a chaotic place. Rebecca went to confirm our flights while we stood in a non-moving line which people kept taking cuts. Then we got our tickets and then made our way to gate 41, well after standing there for 15 minutes we found out we where in the wrong line. We made it to gate 43 and were herded in like a bunch of cattle to a bus that took us to our plane. Finally got into our plane. The flight left late. We finally arrived after 1.5 hours in the air. Richard was our tour guide at this stop and Mr. Lee was our driver. We traveled from the airport through many cornfields and saw a tomb of some emperor. According to Richard, Confusion was the first person to come up with tombstones, because when he left home he wanted to know where his mother was buried when he returned. There where a lot of tombstones in the fields we passed.
City Wall (9 miles) 9-12-02 Started the day off with the standard buffet meal. Left at 830 to tour the Neolithic Museum. The findings where 6000 years old. When a child died they were buried in a pot and placed it close to the house, when a bad person died they where buried face down as they where not allowed to look up to the heavens, people where buried together as friends but husbands and wives where not buried together. There was a river dividing the two sides of the town so they knew who was in each town, you could only be with a person from the opposite side of the river.
Burial Jars Then we went to the Terra Cotta museum from the Qing Dynasty. This was amazing, there where over 8,000 total between the 3 vaults. The color of the warriors dissipates in the open air; it does not preserve for more than 3 months. The details and features of each soldiers faces and uniforms where so unique, none of the faces where the same. The farmer that found the terra cotta warriors in 1974 was there signing books.
Terra Cotta Warriors Vault 1 We then went to the Hot Springs that where used from the Tung Dynasty Emperor. The Emperor would meet his concubine at this location during the winter. When the emperor was 50 he fell in love with concubine and once he fell in love with her he focused all his energy on her and forgot about the people.
Hot Springs We then went to a dinner show; Tang Dynasty Dinner and Show. The had dancing and music with the Tang Dynasty instruments. Very nice music and dance choreography.
Wild Goose Pagota (and Rain) After the wonderful massage, the chaos began. We then traveled to the airport to find out we cannot sit together on the flight to Guilin, Richard didn’t know that he was suppose to pay for our taxes, and now we sit in the airport in front of 6 gates and not a single gate has our flight number on it and we have 15 minutes until it leaves. Wonderful!! So Geoff is feeling bad, I’m pissed and we most likely have no flight to Guilin. YAHHHH!! So a recap of Xian, the museums where amazing, the food was ok (not as good as Beijing), the dinner show was really nice, it rained all three days, the smog is horrible here, and when you drive you inhale so much gas fumes you can get high. I think the reason I felt so tired the whole time was because I was inhaling gas fumes, close to dying from carbon monoxide. Great they just added a flight to the list board and it leaves later than ours, oh Geoff just found out our flight now leaves at 1810.
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Northern Gate The sky again was very smoggy. When we entered the city there where two parts of the city, the outer and the inner city, separated from the wall of the Ching Dynasty. We stopped to look at the north gate and the bell used to alert the army of intruders that where approaching the wall. Richard took us to a Hot Pot Restaurant where we boiled our food. Richard asked Geoff if he wanted to go to the bathroom and Geoff said “Sure, If you want to?” Richard gave Geoff a weird look because Geoff thought he said “Do you want to sing?”. Of course the food was too much. Had a great dessert (donut like) that we dipped in something that tasted like Sweeten Condensed Milk. The Chinese do not like Chocolate much here. After dinner we went to the Garden Hotel and hope to fall asleep by 2200 as there is hammering outside. UGH.
Our Tour Guide, Richard
Neolithic Museum
Town Remains The Huan Dynasty destroyed many of the warriors and currently many of the scientist’s dig up the warriors and piece them back together. It was interesting that this took 40 years to make and that the ruler had all the workers that made these statuses placed into a cave and the doors shut behind them.
Vault 1 Another general saw this as an opportunity to take over so one of his men told the emperor he had to kill his love to maintain his position. He gave his love a knife and she killed herself, he however died 3 months later; he could not live without her. The hot springs are not flowing any more because the water level is so low as people are using the water. There where locations where small places where the springs where hot ~47 C.
Tang Dynasty Dinner Show 9-13-02 Woke up at 640 and packed everything up. Had breakfast and then met Richard at 0830. Visited Shaangi Museum and viewed the history of the dynasty’s. Then went to visit the Buddhist Temple, the Wild Goose Pagoda. Monks still worshiped here. Then got sucked into another, come buy this stuff. Richard painted my name in Chinese. I think he was getting tired though. Then had lunch at the Scarlet Restaurant. Had dumplings (pot stickers), their sauce was very hot though.. Geoff is getting sick so I gave him our only antibiotic. Sure hope I do not get sick, as there isn’t any medication left. After lunch we had extra time so Richard took us to a Foot Massage Palace. 200 RMB (~$12.00 per person) for an hour foot massage. The Massage was great; they also massaged our arms/legs and shoulders for 1 hour. The girls massaging our feet where constantly giggling as they where probably laughing at Geoff’s big feet.
Foot Massage So the story gets better, Geoff is really sick, our guide in Guilin, Jimmy, seems to care less about us, they put us in a room that smells so bad I cannot breath and now they are telling us they are booked. WHATEVER. So after some calling and stern talking we ended up on the executive floor with a really nice room, smoke free. Signing off at 2300.
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