At the end of our journey in Shanghai, we stayed in this hotel near the airport, because we had an early flight to Xi'an the next morning. We didn't have high expectations, as we just chose this hotel because it was the cheapest hotel near the airport, and we were only planning to be there for like 7 hours. Also, we had found this review of a nearby hotel when planning our trip.
When we arrived, we quickly learned that nobody at the hotel spoke any English. Fortunately, by this point we could get by well enough in Mandarin.
So imagine our excitement when we were greeted by this king size bed! (Our previous hotel had two twins.) And it was a western-style mattress! And there was carpet! Real, built-in, not-a-rug carpet! AND they had a western-style bathroom! With a separated shower!
We knew this was all too good to be true... there had to be something weird. And we found it. As it turns out, our room was in the middle of the building, so our (very secure) window led out into a hallway. Nonetheless, we were very pleased with this hotel, and wished we could have stayed longer.
But alas, we had a very early flight to catch. Being the second day of the new year, we got some fun in-flight treats to celebrate. The airline gave everyone little balloons with snakes on them (the upcoming Chinese New Year would mark the beginning of the year of the snake). And we got to sign a book that they passed around with our new year wishes (or something like that, we weren't really sure what was going on). It was fun to look in the book at the other languages that people had signed in - mostly Chinese and German (speaking of Germans - we saw lots of them while traveling! Those guys are always on vacation!).
When we arrived in Xi'an, we took a bus into the city and did some shopping at this little village of stands. There were so many crafty things to buy. Tom bought a nifty kinetic watch - fortunately, we made friends with the lady who sold it to him, because the watch ended up not working well, so we returned the next day and worked out a trade with her for some sweet cross-stitches.
We thought it was cold in Shanghai, but whoa, we didn't know what we were getting into by going to Xi'an. Holy chilly. Luckily, a street vendor was selling delicious freshly pressed and heated pomegranate juice to warm us up.
By the time we made it to our hostel, we were pooped. Though we had to sleep on twins, these mattresses were so so comfortable, and we welcomed a nice nap promptly after arriving. We felt so lucky to get another set of western-style mattresses! Also, this hostel was just dripping with hip-ness and hipster-ness. Very hip. More on that later.
That night we hopped on a bus and worked our way over to the DaYan (literally, Big Goose) Pagoda. We got kind of lost on the way, but found our way to a Walmart! We had to go in, to see if it was any more American than the one we'd visited in Beijing.
Nope, it wasn't any more American. Quite the contrary. We had to follow mysterious signs down flights of stairs to find our way in. And then we couldn't find our way out. Always an adventure.
Eventually we did make it to the DaYan Pagoda, and even managed to find our way into the surrounding wall (this was a surprisingly difficult task). We acquired some grilled corn and chicken, and enjoyed the end of the water fountain show with coordinating music and lights.
The fountain/light/music show was really awesome.
After the show, we explored the grounds surrounding the pagoda. There was this nifty carved relief monument thing. Very neat.
Further from the pagoda, there was a little forest with rolling hills and statues scattered throughout. While it could have been creepy, since it was night time and there weren't many people around, it was actually very peaceful and beautiful. Not to mention, fun.
While we were walking around this little forest area, we stopped a guard and I asked him for directions. Tom told me that I use a very "sweet" voice when I speak Chinese. I told him that since I can't communicate that well in Chinese, I have to rely on my "sweetness" to show politeness and gratitude.
We ate an extremely delicious and American-tasting meal near our hostel when we returned that night: barbecued wings and orange soda (with some fried rice - you can really only get so American in a Chinese restaurant in China). We were in heaven.
So we took a bus out to Emporer Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum, which was about an hour outside of the city. When we got there, we buddied up with a couple from the UK/America. They were really nice and well-traveled, so it was fun to spend some time with them, but have our own freedom at the same time.
The first thing we saw at the museum was a really neat video that told the history of the terracotta warriors and Emporer Qinshihuang, and how the terracotta warriors were discovered in recent decades. Basically, in 1974 a group of farmers was digging a well and they happened upon some of these terracotta warriors. Since then, three huge pits of these warriors have been found and restored. The fellow in the picture below was supposedly one of those original farmers that discovered the army. He was signing books and things, but we caught him on his lunch break.
The archeological dig is still under way, and the majority of the statues have not yet been uncovered.
Notice the red nose - it was so so cold in there! As is the case in most Chinese buildings, there was no heating.
Some of the best reconstructed statues were in glass, to display the different types of warriors. I believe this one was an archer.
The most shocking thing to me was the combination of intricate details on the army, along with the incredible vastness of it!
These are some of the warriors that were in the process of being restored.
The next day, we wandered about the city a bit. While in one of the underground tunnels (these seem to be commonplace in big Chinese cities - they help prevent pedestrian/auto accidents), we passed by this mysterious shop. They were selling a very intricate type of art that was specific to this region of China - shadow puppets that had been cut out of thin leather. Very neat.
We walked from our hostel to the city wall, and up, up, up to the top. We climbed a lot of stairs on this trip.
This sign by a parapet reads: "Parapets (literally 'women walls' in Chinese) are low protective walls along the both edges on the top of the city wall... They are so named because they seem so low compared to the main wall." Just a little old-fashioned sexism. (I jest, sort of).
On the top of the wall we rented bikes to ride around the wall. We thought we'd make it around the full circle of the wall, but the brick path was so old and bumpy, and the bikes so... well used..., that we ended up riding half way around and feeling accomplished enough.
After our adventures on the wall, we met up with Mike and Sara for dinner, and wandered through the city together for a while afterward.
The next day we made our way to the airport and flew to Tianjin, where we took an overpriced cab ride to the train station. We took a short train ride from Tianjin to Cangzhou, and an even shorter rickshaw ride home to our lovely little apartment. And thus ended our Shanghai/Xi'an adventure.
