China: Xi'an Day 2

We got a wake up call at 0645 and a second one at 0700. I kept hitting snooze, exhausted. Eventually I had to get up and get ready for the day. We had a jam packed schedule. We got ready and headed downstairs to the lobby a little past 0800. We were meeting to leave on the buses at 0815. So we didn't get a chance to eat breakfast. At this point I'd rather the extra 15 minutes of sleep than food.

We left prompty at 0815 to see the Xi'an City Wall and one of the gates. It was all decorated for the New Years festivities with giant hand-made flowers and sculptures. They were made of fabric and we even saw one being made on the wall.

We climbed up on top of the wall and viewed the city of Xi'an from every angle. It was a really clear day so the view was great. On top of the wall was a 2 story building that we could go up in. There were people inside trying to sell us all sorts of stuff. On the second level we could walk outside and take pictures of the city.

The wall extended in different directions and you could walk in and bike on it. You couldn't even see how far it extended. There was a courtyard in the middle with different, colorful exhibits. We got a ton of pictures and even managed a huge group picture of almost all 98 people. An impressive feat considering we were all doing our own thing.

Our next stop by the Great Mosque and Bazaar in the Muslim Quarter. There are 700,000 Muslims in China. We followed our tour guide back through the maze of walls and alley ways by tons of vendors. If you so much as looked at any item they had for sale they were all over you to sell you it.

The Mosque was unlike anything I'd ever seen before. It was a series of buildings and structures with courtyards and sculptures outside. It was really cool, but we weren't allowed in any of them. There were men and boys everywhere preparing for something. They were all eating outside, packed into a square courtyard. I only saw a few girls, and the women were in the kitchens preparing the food.

We wound our way back through the vendors. They sold such random items: North Face jackets, scarves, typical tourist items.

We took the bus from the center of Xi'an about an hour of the city to a restaurant for lunch. This drive took us out to the mountains. Again, they're gorgeous and dusted in snow. The restaurant was up on the second floor and consisted of several huge halls. Similar to the restaurant the night before. We had to walk through an enormous room of vendors again.

The food was pretty good: noodles, chicken, pork, vegetables, white rice. It was pretty standard for Chinese food. Chopsticks were somewhat of a fail. I'm slowly getting better.

The way they serve food here is family style on a lazy susan. It spins around the 10 person table and you serve yourself. Everything was pre-ordered again, so we didn't have to do anything. And the drinks were included this time. But there was no water and I don't drink soda, so I was only able to drink the beer. Tea is served with everything the same way water is served in the states. The food was pretty good. I enjoyed it. People need to stop complaining, they had to have known that going around the world meant eating all the different foods. Although I'm not looking forward to Indian food. One of the girls last night went out and got McDonalds during dinner and brought it back. Quite blatantly. That's so rude and that's how we end up being know as SAS-holes. Wonderful.

We had time to explore the vendors after lunch. There was some cool stuff but I'm saving up for Beijing. I bartered with a woman and bought a little wooden frog for BatFrog, who I miss dearly. They gave us more than enough time there.

Then we took a 10 minute bus ride to the Terracotta Warrior Museum. I have been looking forward to this since I signed up for it in November. It made me remember when I first learned about the Terracotta Warriors in 6th grade for my country report on China. I really never dreamed one day I'd be in China seeing them. Apparently they're one of the 7 Wonders of the New World. Or so I've heard.

The area that the museum covers is massive. There are 3 pits where the warriors and horses are found. They were made to protect an emperor in the afterlife. There are so many of them. I'll upload the picture from my phone as soon as my phone has good enough service. The pit with hundreds of them is huge. It's in a giant building constructed around them. They've been reconstructed as many of them were in pieces. Each one has a different face and is unique. Each one is 5'10.

We took a ton of pictures of the warriors and horses. I can't wait to show them to people. It was just so cool.

After pit 1, I went to pit 2. They were selling books about it and the man who discovered the warriors back in the late 60's was autographing them. He's old, in his 80's. He didn't seem too pleased to be there signing the books.

There was another building that housed the museum and housed the 2 bronze horses. Those were also pretty sick. But in comparison to the warriors they were much smaller. I was expecting them to be huge. No such luck. Sick all the same.

We finished up at the Tea House. We all sat around and ordered traditional Chinese tea. Or so I believe. I had Lychee Black Tea. It had juice flavors. I recommend it. They showed us how they go about making the tea right in front of us. It was delicious and warmed us up greatly. We were freezing.

We all gathered and got back on our buses and headed to an orphanage an hour away. No one seemed to know anything about this.

The orphanage was run down and small, set aside in a rural area. There were about 30 kids there, ages 3 to 16. Their parents are in jail. There's usually about 90 kids there, but many were with their extended families for the New Years holiday. We got a basic tour of where they sleep and walked around the little plot of land. With 98 of us and only 30 of them it was hard to play with them. None of them spoke English either so it was difficult.

This was portrayed as "volunteering," but I we didn't do anything. Half of the kids were watching a movie and wanted little to do with us. A few of the younger boys had a snowball fight with us with the limited dirty snow on the ground. They were so cute.

They had us gather in a small auditorium and we sang the itsy bitsy spider, twinkle twinkle little star, and if you're happy and you know it. One of the women who worked there gave us a talk on the orphanage explaining who the kids are and why they were there. All the little kids ran around and had a good time. Then 2 groups of kids put on a performance for us. So cute. We took a giant group picture and said goodbye.

We had a little time before dinner so we went back to the hotel to drop stuff off and change. At 1900 we went to the Tang Dynasty Dinner Show in Xi'an.

The hall and building that it was in was gorgeous, golds and reds everywhere. More crazy architecture. We got a table right up front in the first row. The tables were banquet style. A few women played instruments on the stage. They were dressed up in brightly colored robes with tons of heavy make up. Also they were all pale. Like really pale. And here we are priding ourselves on being tan.

They brought out 5 or 6 courses with dumplings, vegetables, chicken, soup, king prawns, rice. Crazy delicious things. We ate everything. Best meal so far. Apparently it was a westernized Catonese meal. It wasn't that westernized compared to what I know and what we've been eating. More jasmine tea and rice wine. I can't remember if I mentioned the rice wine in my last post. But rice wine is such a glorious drink. It's so sweet and served in small amounts. Apparently it's alcoholic, but I don't believe it.

After dinner they brought us some orange sorbet and fruit dish. I've learned that fruit dishes typically signify the end of the meal. Then the show started.

The show was obscenely amazing. The dancers were incredible. There was so much color and light. The bright lights added to the costumes and make up and jewelry. I loved it. Everyone was in absolute awe. I took pictures and a video or two. I hope they can do it justice. But nothing til May. Sorry.

After the dinner show everyone went back to the hotel. Mostly too tired to go out to look for the few bars that exist.

A few of us went out to get milkshakes at McDonalds before turning in for the night. We got a cab there. Somehow Carson managed to twist her ankle on the walkway over the road. We got her some ice and rested at McDonalds for awhile before getting a cab back.

We watched the Olympics in Chinese for a while before passing out. Long day. The Olympics featured events with Chinese athletes. Obviously. So it wasn't quite as interesting. We only got some skiing with an American. Lindsay Vonn. Interesting.

Long day.