Women qu le XiAn!!

Just got back from XiAn.. a little, (little if you compare it to Tianjin) still having 7 million people, town out West! Although not so little, you could definitely tell the difference in the amount of people on the streets. I didn't feel as confined while actually walking down the sidewalk.. I also didn't fear getting ran over by a ton of bicycles. Things seemed a little more up-scale in XiAn. We were treated like MovieStars once again.. probably the nicest hotel I have ever stayed in... comfy beds..the softest bed I have slept on since I have been in China.... rotating breakfast room on the 20th floor... great meals...and a beautiful view... couldn't asked for anything more!

So I guess you could say, we experienced everything in this city. We fly over to XiAn Thursday morning. First stop was the hotel...then we began the touristy stuff. We headed to the City Wall... which just like Beijing surrounds the entire city. It was huge with a great view of the city but didn't compare to the Great Wall...obviously. Close by were two towers..a bell and drum tower in which the bells are sounded every morning and the drums every evening. We also went through a huge museum about the many dynasties that survived through China... since XiAn was the capital of China throughout the first four dynasties... don't I sound intelligent. :) After that we went to the hotel... relax in our bubble bathes and very comfy beds!!

The next day was the best day of the trip.. We first saw the Tercotta Warriors... soo crazy!! There were over 7,000 warriors that have been found.. and they are still excavating! It was so amazing. Each warrior had a different face and each were soo detailed it was CRAZY... We watched a movie before which was in one of those surrounding theatres like Disney World.. it explained everything about the warriors and how they were found and made and all the detail... We also saw to see the farmer who found the actual warriors..that was pretty neat.. It was crazy how all the Chinese people flocked to get his signature..screaming and crowding around him. There were three actual buildings that dug down underneath were the warriors, horse and carriages.. SO MUCH DETAIL...I still can't believe it...

Later on Saturday we went to visit the actual tomb of the emperor of the Qin Dynasty that all the warriors were constructed to protect. We couldn't go into it since they are really trying to preserve the tomb, but there was very cool display of old rituals played out and we were able to climb to the top of the tomb and see the view of the rural area surrounding it. We had seen many of the same type of mountain/hill/tomb looking things on the way into the city from the airport..they were all also tombs of emperors.. many were spread over the valley of XiAn...

There were beautiful mountains north of XiAn that we only got a glimpse of at the summer place we went to that day..we saw the slightly at the tomb, but since it was so foggy we missed out...SAD.. but the summer palace made up for it.. we saw hot springs, old bathing rooms for the emperors and his concubines.. and where a very famous conquer got caught...I will update the name a little later when I can think more...Overall it was beautiful... the bridges and walkways and stairs were so detailed and to think the emperor and his concubine just used to walk around and be in this beautiful place so long ago make it all so much more amusing.

More to come...