It seems that there are at least TWO things we have to see while we're in China.
One is the Great Wall and the other….the Xi'an Terracotta Warriors.
Let's head to Xi'an for the weekend!!!
Thank goodness it's not a long flight from Tianjin- probably one of the shortest we've ever been on. (which is rather nice for a change of pace!)
I will tell you that some of the workers in the Tianjin airport seem to really not care for families at all. Specifically, the people who are at the passport control/security check desk. We travel as a family- as one unit. The folks at the desk are ALWAYS grumpy when we come through and try to get us to go through the line one at a time. Ummmm….We have children! Do you honestly think we'd leave them alone????? Short answer: No.
Ah well. We managed to get through security anyway. I just wish they were friendlier to families. And it seems that our flight is slightly delayed. At least it's not canceled! It's something we still haven't gotten used to- traveling in China by airplane means being extremely patient with flight delays and cancellations, as they are quite routine and normal. As a matter of fact, it seems odd when a flight does go out on time. WHY????? I'm sure somebody knows. Still, our flight is more or less on time…we just ate some ice cream from TCBY. Yes, that TCBY! They have one in the Tianjin airport!!! 🙂 Plus, we're on our favorite Chinese airline- Tianjin Airlines. Can you imagine, for a 1.5 hour flight, they served us a hot meal!!!
We'll be staying at the Xi'an Hilton. Why the Hilton? Well, we have a "free" night- using our Hilton points to stay one night free. I guess we're so used to these fancy schmancy hotels. In retrospect I think what we're spending on one night here is probably the cost of two nights at a hotel in a better location. Usually in the past, we've been upgraded to a nicer room when staying at the Hilton hotels. Not this time. And breakfast wasn't included in that fantastic sum of money we plunked down. They wanted an extra 450RMB for breakfast (that was for one day, not two days). Sorry, we don't eat enough from a buffet to justify that kind of cost – especially when we're paying an arm and a leg for the room. Thank goodness for the Starbucks in walking distance from the hotel!!!!
Ah yes. And how do we go see the sights??? To hire a guide or not to hire a guide?!? That seems to be a rather puzzling question. I asked friends for guide recommendations. After getting in touch with a few of these guides I realized they wanted a LOT of money for their services- or at least so it seemed. It was so difficult to decide whether or not to use a guide. I generally prefer figuring out my own way- and I can't stand being forced to go to tourist souvenir trap after souvenir trap. We've had enough of that on our one tour around Phuket! In the end we hired a car through the hotel and they hired a guide after explicit instructions from us about letting us choose where we would go.
And one more thing- I've had my heart set on seeing Hua Shan. It's a mountain about 120km east of Xi'an. However, all the guides want to charge an exorbitant fee to travel to it. We had thought about getting train tickets the night before but as we landed over an hour late in Xi'an it was too late to head to the train station. Another thing I'm slowly learning is that train travel is a little different than in Europe- there are so many people traveling by train that you need to buy your tickets in advance. I didn't want to waste one of the days waiting at the train station to get to Hua Shan. So, what does that mean??? It means skipping the mountain. *sigh* I love mountains.
FYI: This post contains a lot of photos. I really mean it!
Enough chit chat…on to Starbucks for breakfast!!!!
Ladies dancing near the Starbucks.
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Okay, time to head back to the hotel and see about hiring a car for the day to take us to see a few sights. Ah…well. Now we've discussed several options with the concierge's desk- it seems that hiring a car and a guide would be easiest for us. And the guide will be able to abide our wishes. As in, not stopping at every tourist souvenir shop there ever existed in Xi'an!!!
Where are we going first????
Some place called Banpo Museum.
(or check out this website: Banpo Museum)
Something about being a 6,000 year old neolithic village. Oh my. That IS old.
Lots and lots of lovely pottery.
Is it just us or do you also seem some similarities in the artwork on these pots and that of the Hopi?
On a tangent note: When we first entered the museum we noticed another foreign couple staring at our feet. ???? It seemed so completely strange at the time but we bumped into them again inside the building and starting chatting with them. We learned that they were from Spain and they were really impressed with our SHOES and wanted to know where we got them!!?! Well, I have to admit we ARE a walking advertisement for Keens! LOL!!! All four of us have Keen sandals and I can't imagine not having them.
Not exactly the most interesting of sights to look at:
More excavations…
Pots. Lots of pots. Many of the pots were used for burial of small children. Many of the bigger jars contained the remains of infants. Not a nice thought!!! The little pots in the photo below though contained the ashes of rice and other similar things used as burnt offerings.
Many graves. The location of the village- high and dry from the river allowed for the village to be preserved.
Seen enough??? I think I've seen enough skeletons to last for a long, long time.
Can we move on???
Pretty please????
Okay, our guide suggested we stop at a place where "we can see how terracotta warriors are made". As in a souvenir shop. Weeeeelllllll…..maybe just this once we'll stop at a souvenir shop. We do want to purchase our own little set of warriors to take home!!!
Photo Op:
heeeheeeheehee!!!!
Terracotta warrior Souvenir Shop…let's watch and learn how to make our little terracotta warrior statue.
Two-part mold:
Check out all the statues behind the lady working with the molds. They're air drying for about one or two weeks until they get fired in a kiln.
Ooo!!! Fun! The gentleman showing us around said we could make a statue too! (naturally we don't get to keep it)
Kiln full of terracotta warriors. Check out that big one!
This kiln is firing away. They completely cement it up while firing the kiln. Once the firing is complete they break down the cement.
A headless statue:
An old-style flute:
Ah, did you notice how the terracotta statues started out reddish-brown but turned ashen black after firing??? I thought they would come out terracotta (deep reddish brown) but I was wrong!!!
Hmmmmmm….Which one to buy????
Now how about some lunch?? Our guide claims this restaurant will be a good one. If it's as good as the lunch we had on the tour in Phuket we're in trouble.
Yep, we're in trouble. The food is nearly edible. Why oh why do tours take tourists to eat at the blandest, most boring restaurants of all????? I mean, there must be hundreds of restaurants here and we get this boring one- PLUS, they stuck us in the back corner, far away from any of the other customers or far away from any windows. So, no looking out the scenery- just a view of dingy walls. Check out the paper plates and plastic cups they gave us to use!! We noticed that other customers got regular ceramic place settings. Hmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!! NOT not not going to come back to this place!!!!!
And now we're finally heading to the museum we've been wanting to see ever since we've arrived in Xi'an.
And FINALLY! We've finally come to the part of the trip we've anticipated since moving to China. What could that possibly be????
I'm sure you've guessed it, right???
The Terracotta Warrior Statues at Bing Ma Yong!!!
Oh my! That IS impressive!!!!
This is Pit #1. It is the largest and the most impressive of the three pits. Our friends had suggested we start with pit #3 (as it is the smallest) but since we were with a guide we followed her to pit #1 first. I kind of wish we'd followed our friend's suggestion! Nothing is impressive after this particular sight!
Here are a few things Helen mentioned:
- These statues were buried many feet underground (that might not be evident from the photos).
- The statues at the front are bigger than life size.
- No two statues are alike. Either their hair, facial expressions, shoes or clothing is slightly different.
- They were originally all painted but over time the paint has all but disappeared. (a huge fire also helped to destroy many of them)
- They believe there are more statues buried.
- There are no known written records of these statues- which likely contributes to their being still mostly intact!
- They have not located the kilns in which the statues were created.
- Due to a major fire many centuries ago (I'm not a history buff so if you're interested I'm sure there are many books and websites out there that talk more about this) many of the statues were dismantled or partially destroyed.
- The archeologists have carefully reconstructed some of the warriors. Many of the warriors are still undergoing reconstructive surgery while others will remain as is (partially destroyed) as a reminder to all what the sight looked like to begin with.
- The statues were initially covered by wood rafters. The fire which destroyed many of the statues also burned the rafters which contributed to the destruction of these statues. Do you see the indentations the wood rafters left on the top of the thick walls?
- The statues were created in pieces- and their bodies are hollow. Which is why you'll see some headless statues.
Statues and more statues….
I believe these statues are undergoing reconstructive surgery:
Hey! No on the job napping!
Another pit…I think this might be pit #2.
Upclose and personal with an archer. The archers were my favorite. And due to their kneeling position they were the least affected by the fire; therefore more archers were intact than the other statues. They say that they archers used to have a weapon in their hands but due to age and the fire they're long gone.
Bigger than life-size horse with jade reins.
Inside Pit #3 (or is it 2? They kind of blurred together in my memory):
Outside the terracotta warrior statues museum:
Heading down the steps to go see a bronze chariot. The actual bronze chariot is on display in a different part of the city. The one located in the museum is actually a replica.
The smaller than life size replica of the bronze horse-drawn chariot. The chariot looks like a turtle, doesn't it?
There is a nasty smell down here- they must be working on this part of the museum. I can't stand the smell so let's get out of here!!!
Family photo on the museum grounds:
Time to head back to the hotel. We're wiped out! Thank goodness we chose to go with a guide!!! Why??? Our guide has a pass that allows us to by-pass the hounding tourist-shop sellers. That right there is a worthy reason to pay 300RMB for a guide!!!!
Let's say good bye to Helen. She's been a friendly and knowledgable guide. She asked if we'd be interested in attending a dinner & musical/theatrical show tonight but we've had enough touristy stuff for today. Thanks so much!
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I think we need to cool down and have some down time. Let's go for a swim in the pool!!!
Alas, wee bit of a let down- we stayed only fifteen minutes in the pool. Why??? One of the other hotel guests (Asian…likely Chinese) has decided we should be photographed and videoed. UGH!!! Please leave us alone!!!! Plus a Chinese boy thought it would be great fun to follow us around the pool while constantly splashing water in our faces. Hardeeharhar. No, I'm not laughing. It might have been fun if he'd come up and talked to us- we probably would have even played with him. Huge cultural difference between the Chinese and Westeners – we Westeners don't like having our Private Space invaded. The expensive hotels are usually a haven for us- a place to get away from it all.
HUGE bummer!!!!!
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Let's head out to explore a bit of the town. We've heard through a friend that there is some sort of fun night market close to the Drum Tower- so we're walking towards the Muslim Quarter. Plus, we're hungry and we really want to find something yummy to eat and we've read in our guide book that the Muslim Quarter has lots of good places to eat!
We also ordered some jiaozi (meat filled dumplings) but everyone agreed that the jiaozi our Ayi makes is far superior to these. Oh well….but that soup. Oh my Goodness!!! I can't stop thinking about how yummy it was!!!
Let's take a stroll through the market…so many interesting things to observe:
Mmmm….quail eggs. On a stick. Must be good! (and yes, they are! I tried some!)
Cooking with FIRE
Walnuts…roasting?
A covered market selling all kinds of souvenirs.
interesting souvenir t-shirt:
Beautifully lit up Drum Tower:
Well, this has been a most fun evening! Great food, lots of fun walking around but I think it's time we made our way back to the hotel. It is a fair bit of walk back and I think we're all tired.
Good night! After a thirty minute walk back to our "conveniently located" hotel it's time for us to crash!
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Rise and Shine!!!! Good morning! I hope you've slept well! I'm pretty sure I did…..or at least I can't remember.
Hungry??? Let's head to Starbucks-
Let's go for a walk and see if we can't find the Bell Tower and the Drum Tower, okay? Let's see what we can see- today we don't have much time before we have to drive back to the airport.
Umm….how do we actually get to the Bell Tower???? I just see cars driving around and around the Bell Tower (it's in the middle of a roundabout). Ah! I figured it out! There's an underground passage up ahead…Let's check that out and see if that takes us where we want to go.
Yes! After a bit of walking around we found the place to buy tickets for the Bell Tower and the Drum Tower (we bought a combo ticket that let's us get into both places).
The Bell Tower:
There's a reason it's called The Bell Tower:
Do you hear anything??? That…that noise. Where is it coming from? It sounds like music. Let's go find it.
I just love, love, love the colorful artwork all over these old Chinese buildings:
one of the door panels:
Here's a view of the traffic on the roundabout and you can see the Drum Tower in the background (left, middle of the photo):
Mmmm…Haagen-Dazs ice cream! How about we stop off and get some. I'm sure you don't mind, do you? I think this will be our lunch. We're running out of time- I don't think we have time to sit down and eat in a restaurant. Shame. So many excellent looking restaurants too.
Walking up to the Drum Tower:
And here is the Drum …of the Drum Tower.
and more drums.
Let's head over to the Xi'an City Wall. The wall is a giant rectangle around part of the city and you can walk or rent bikes up on the wall to tour the entire thing. We can go up on the wall but sadly we won't have time to rent bicycles – we've been told it's a couple hour ride to tour the entire thing. And we don't even have one hour left!!! Bummer.
So after a bit of frustration and asking in Chinese – we finally found how to get on the wall. When the Chinese build walls they really build WALLS. Does this even look to you like we're up on a wall???? It just looks like we're on any other plain ol' street to me:
Darn it!!! Time to go! Time to head back to the hotel. Let's meander through this market:
More outdoor kitchens. Guess it's smart to do your cooking outside in the middle of summer???!
And this stand is selling various kinds of teas:
Yes they have these in China too:
I want to grab a snack to eat before we try and catch a taxi to take us back to the hotel.
We found a handful of snacks….they're ummm….amusing. We need to catch a taxi now- we're so tired from all the walking we've been doing and the "conveniently located" hotel is about a thirty minute walk from here.
Hey- &^%#%^&*((bleeeeeeeeep))&^%$###$!!!!!!!!!!
Why won't the taxi cabs stop for us????? We've asked three cabs now- IN CHINESE to please take us to our hotel. And we've been refused.
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, we're tired. We're grumpy. We're frustrated. We're done. We're no longer amused by the Chinese trying to grab and touch Ava. We're tired of them taking our photos. (it was fun six months ago) We're tired of the Chinese laughing when we say we don't want them to do that (touch our girls or take our photos). We're toasty toast. Let's high tail it to the hotel and get the heck out of here!!!!!
I think it might be time to leave Xi'an…What do you think???
I'm still hungry. We really didn't get any lunch, did we?
And now we're boarding. Our flight is more or less on time. Is that possible in China?????
And here's my traveling companion:
And we're off! Time to head back home! It's been a most interesting and amusing time. It was definitely worth all the hassle to see those amazing terracotta warrior statues but now I'm glad that we're back home!!!!