Independence Day in Xi'an (That's the date up on the board)
We just got back from our weekend in Xi'an--- It was a really good time. Let me first explain what that super flamboyent looking picture is on the right.... It is our group all dressed up in Beijing Opera costumes. I'm the dude with the beard 4th from right. I look damn good.
The highlights of the trip before I describe the pictures. We took a 2 hour flight from Tianjin to Xi'an. It was quite a turbelant flight. We arrived in the evening and had time to walk down a Muslim street and saw some old bell and drum towers before we went to dinner (I got to smash a giant bell and drum which brings me good luck). 6% of the population in Xi'an is Muslim. We also visited a muslim temple on sunday. We then had dinner at this roast duck restaurant. The next day we ventured off to see the Terracotta Warriors. It was a beautiful day. Both days we spent in Xi'an were perfect clear blue skys. The Warriors were pretty cool. The had these big buildings covering the sites were they dug them out and then had hundreds of them reconstructed and placed back like they would originally had been. If I remember correctly they found none in tact because they were raided by another dynasty's army thousands of years ago and burned and destroyed. Each soldier was hand crafted and the detail in them is incredible. They each have their own face based off sketches of the emperors actual soldiers. The lines in the hands are also all different. Of yea and they are all life size.
To the right is a picture of the weather.
Picture of me standing with my platoon of terracotta warriors.
After the terracotta warriors musuem we went to this imperial bath house that was famous because of the legendary 4 beauty's of China used to bath there. She was the concubine of an emperor. It was really beautiful there right in front of a mountain with lakes and pogadas and stuff.
The Bath house
That night we ate dinner at this dumpling restaurant were they served us a whole variety of different flavored dumplings. It was pretty good.
We also got to witness an exhibition of Tai Chi that Dr. Liu set us up with. It was very interesting. Their brand of Tai Chi was a lot more powerful then the one we practice every morning. And it was interesting to see the 83 year old grand master still able to do the forms.
The next day we got to ride bikes on top of the Xi'an city wall. This was one of my favorite things from the trip. It was a beautiful day and the massive city wall surrounds what was the ancient part of Xi'an.
We then had to take a excrutiatinly long train ride back to Tianjin..... 不好(no good) We left at 2:30 pm Sunday and didn't get back to Nankai until 10:30 am the next day.......
Ok well as you can tell there was a lot to do this weekend. There are probably some things I forgot to mention but overall this weekend was awesome. My favorite so far- perhaps heavily influenced by the clear skys.
All make sure to keep ya'll informed of what's going down in China. We only got a week left. I'm definately excited to get home but at the same time I'm going to miss China. I can definately see myself coming back here.
Next weekend is in Shanghai and then its back to 美国! (america)
-Justin
No comments:
Post a Comment