Visit to Xi'an

Exploring the city wall by tandem
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January 12th, Thursday

We arrive at Xi'an airport in the afternoon and meet J in the town centre! So great to see her! With some impressive Chinese Jo gets us to her home on the University campus by taxi where she is teaching Biology. We spend the afternoon sipping tea, and chatting for HOURS.

January 13th, Friday

After a nice lie in, in order to make a start on the many sights Xi'an has to offer we make for the city centre. The Xi'an City Wall is a major attraction so we decide to hire bikes (and a tandem!) to go around the town on top of it which was great fun (see the pictures!). Afterwards we go for a cuppa in a lovely tea house and browse through some souvenir stalls. Lots of interesting things but you have to bargain hard to get a good price!

Tandem II
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January 14th, Saturday

More exploring in Xi'an as we visit the Bell and Drum Tower - great fun to try the Bell and Drum out -, visit the Muslim Quarter and the Great Mosque. In the evening we meet some of Jo's students which is great fun and very interesting.

January 15th, Sunday

We meet some of Jo's other expat friends and go for lunch together. In the evening we just chill at Jo's, which is lovely and warm with the weather being quite gloomy and cold outside.

Lou and J in front of the Xi'an Bell Tower
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January 16th, Monday

Lou and Alex make for the famous Terracotta Army! It's a bit of a trek but we arrive at the site in good time. With the help of a guide, we see the different pits of buried soldiers. The first one was discovered in 1974 when locals dug a well and found funny-looking terracotta pieces. The whole complex had been built in 200BC by the first Emperor of China, called Qin and it took 35 years. As he wasn't only a successful but cruel ruler, after his death his enemies raided the places and set fire to it so all the tunnels with soldiers etc collapsed and smashed EVERYTHING! So seeing the thousands of soldiers that are on display restored from basically rubble was absolutely amazing and we just couldn't get our heads round it. There are pits with general army soldiers, one for the head quarters with lots of generals. All figures are different and probably modelled on individual soldiers. They were also all painted and you can still catch glimpses of it. The museum calls the Terracotta Army the 8th Wonder of the World, and we can only agree, it's absolutely fantastic. Wait till we swamp you with our pictures! Back in Xi'an after this exciting day, Jo takes us to a hot pot restaurant which is delicious.

Xi'an by night
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January 17th, Tuesday

Although we had planned to explore the Hua Shan Mountain (2000m) the weather (rain/snow and mist) makes us just spend the day in town. Lou and Alex explore the Shaanxi Provincial Museum which gives us a good overview of all the different Chinese dynasties and local history. After lunch in a Uigur restaurant (the Uigurs are a turkic tribe living in the Xinjiang province of China in the far west bordering with Kazacstan) we make for the Wild Goose Pagoda, another sight of the city. It's a bit miserable so after a short stroll around we come back to Jo's for tea and a homemade dinner (some pasta makes for a nice change). We will be off to Pingyao, a lovely ancient small town tomorrow with Jo. It's been a great time resting and chatting so we feel reenergised for Pingyao and even more excitingly Beijing towards the end of this week. More from us then... Lots of love, Alex and Lou.