Xi'an - city of the terracotta soldiers
To see some other things than Beijing and also to see the terracotta soldiers - something we all wanted to see - we went to Xi'an. We took a one day trip, but to get there it's a 10 hour (night) train ride. The trains are same standard (soft sleep) as the sleep carriers in Sweden. The differences are that each person has a TV by their bedside and the toilets are terrible... We where able to get some sleep. We spent ca 12 hours in Xi'an and that was for our purpose enough. We had a very talkative guide telling everything from the Chinese history to the greatness of the city, usually at least three times. But some info succeeded to get stuck in our heads.
We got a nice and relaxing lesson in teas at the tea house at the terracotta museum, tasty!
It's pretty big...
The soldiers are there to protect the emperor from enemies from the west in his afterlife.
To keep their trees intact they wrapped them in protecting fabric - to me it becomes something like Christo would make. Looks cool! To exit the museum the guide had to take us through this shopping area where the sales people scream after us to buy really cheap copies of the terracotta soldiers. Sigh...
After the terracotta museum we visited a silk museum (combined with a shop of course). But it was interesting! Xi'an has been an important city of the ancient Silk Road. Actually has Xi'an been the capital of China for a very long time many years ago...
Xi'an has this nice city wall surrounding down town.
The architecture inside the city wall felt more real than in Beijing. You could actually feel the traditions and the history - even if this hotel probably is as newly built as any thing else... But we learned that the Tang dynasty was a beautiful one and has influenced a lot of the Asian style, especially Japan.
We tried some local food. This is some kind of Muslim bread soup. Rather tasty but a very hearty meal - only bread, meat and noodles...
Dried fruits at the Muslim quarter market - very touristy... But we bought some nice dried hawthorn.
We got a nice and relaxing lesson in teas at the tea house at the terracotta museum, tasty!
It's pretty big...
The soldiers are there to protect the emperor from enemies from the west in his afterlife.
To keep their trees intact they wrapped them in protecting fabric - to me it becomes something like Christo would make. Looks cool! To exit the museum the guide had to take us through this shopping area where the sales people scream after us to buy really cheap copies of the terracotta soldiers. Sigh...
After the terracotta museum we visited a silk museum (combined with a shop of course). But it was interesting! Xi'an has been an important city of the ancient Silk Road. Actually has Xi'an been the capital of China for a very long time many years ago...Xi'an has this nice city wall surrounding down town.
The architecture inside the city wall felt more real than in Beijing. You could actually feel the traditions and the history - even if this hotel probably is as newly built as any thing else... But we learned that the Tang dynasty was a beautiful one and has influenced a lot of the Asian style, especially Japan.
We tried some local food. This is some kind of Muslim bread soup. Rather tasty but a very hearty meal - only bread, meat and noodles...
Dried fruits at the Muslim quarter market - very touristy... But we bought some nice dried hawthorn.
posted by Anders at söndag, december 30, 2007
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