Xi'an 18 - 20 April 2006
Our train arrived at 6.30, we where pleasently surprised by a free pick up to the hostel. The Shuyuan Hostel has a lovely feel to it, again presented in a courtyard style. Xi'an seems to be an upper class city with lots of designer shops, it was the capital and still has the old city walls which are rumoured to have been built the same time as the Great Wall. It has all the usuals a chinese city has to offer Bell Tower, Drum Tower etc.
The Terracotta Army was impressive, getting there reminded me rather of arriving at Alton Towers - the car park was massive, full of buses and cars. Public transport to here was easy, thats what we like!
The fountain show at the Big Wild Goose Pagoda was unbelievable, the place was packed and the fountains where huge and arranged to music. The kids where having a real laugh running through them and getting soaked, the music was random ranging from classic to pink floyd!
Culinary adventure - Knife noodles! A guy shaves off noodles from a lump of doe that is rested on his forearm. The fly through the air into a sizzling wok with a sizzzzz. The Muslim 1/4 here is great for food and we had our first BBQ food - very yummi, don't know what we had mind.
We experienced our first market that sold frogs, turtles, fish, snakes and eels by the bucket. The poor things looked pretty dismal but here fresh means fresh! Another shocker - it seems to be fashion to buy fluffy things in cages that they can't move in staked in baking heat, guys selling puppies and kittens that haven't even opened their eyes yet.
Here we tried to buy some sunblock but that was harder than expected! Everyone wanted to sell me block with skin whitener in - crazy when I think of how many people I know are trying to get a tan! We settled on some baby block.
Xi'an is massively illuminatated by night, really bright and dazzling. We stopped at a bridge in the shadow of a tree to watch some bats feeding over the river.
The WWF Shaanxi Wild Animal Reserve is close to here, maybe this was on tour we should have took as we didn't get there on public transport. We found the bus and everything but they just did not want to take us, it felt wrong so we didn't push the situation - we guessed the towns on the way where not mean't for foriegners.
Next Stop train to Lanzhou!
The Terracotta Army was impressive, getting there reminded me rather of arriving at Alton Towers - the car park was massive, full of buses and cars. Public transport to here was easy, thats what we like!
The fountain show at the Big Wild Goose Pagoda was unbelievable, the place was packed and the fountains where huge and arranged to music. The kids where having a real laugh running through them and getting soaked, the music was random ranging from classic to pink floyd!
Culinary adventure - Knife noodles! A guy shaves off noodles from a lump of doe that is rested on his forearm. The fly through the air into a sizzling wok with a sizzzzz. The Muslim 1/4 here is great for food and we had our first BBQ food - very yummi, don't know what we had mind.
We experienced our first market that sold frogs, turtles, fish, snakes and eels by the bucket. The poor things looked pretty dismal but here fresh means fresh! Another shocker - it seems to be fashion to buy fluffy things in cages that they can't move in staked in baking heat, guys selling puppies and kittens that haven't even opened their eyes yet.
Here we tried to buy some sunblock but that was harder than expected! Everyone wanted to sell me block with skin whitener in - crazy when I think of how many people I know are trying to get a tan! We settled on some baby block.
Xi'an is massively illuminatated by night, really bright and dazzling. We stopped at a bridge in the shadow of a tree to watch some bats feeding over the river.
The WWF Shaanxi Wild Animal Reserve is close to here, maybe this was on tour we should have took as we didn't get there on public transport. We found the bus and everything but they just did not want to take us, it felt wrong so we didn't push the situation - we guessed the towns on the way where not mean't for foriegners.
Next Stop train to Lanzhou!
posted by David at 11:27 am
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