Well this week has just flown by. I intended to write earlier about our trip to Xi'an but I don't know where the time went. It seems we're getting busier. We only have 2 more weeks of school and the kids are a little hyper already. They're also preparing for the Christmas program so there is lots of excitement. But we're still having fun. The last week is basically a write-off, because we will be spending most of Tues. and Thurs. practicing on stage in the auditorium (at the other school). And the last day will be our Christmas parties.
So last weekend we took an adventure to Xi'an to see the Terracotta Warriors. We were excited because it was our first trip out of the city on our own! Some of the office staff at the school helped me book train tickets. We left Thursday night. There are 2 train stations in Beijing and we had to go to the furthest one, which took almost 45mins to get to. that was an expensive taxi ride! 60 RMB, which is......$8! well that's expensive for us! we were booked for the "soft sleeper" train. it's basically first class. each cabin has 4 beds (bunk). each bed had headphones and little TV's. and there's a little door to the cabin room. it was quite comfortable. the train left at 9:20pm. We read for a bit then went to sleep. when we woke up at 8am, we were there! We immediately went to buy our tickets home (couldn't do before) then worked on finding a driver to take us around for the day. We found an English-speaking tour guide with a car but his first price was too high so we walked away. We found him again later (because the other chinese drivers avoided eye contact)....and he was speaking with another foreigner. so the 3 of us decided to go together for the day for 100 RMB per person, which is $15! and that was for the whole day!
The first place he took us was the Banpo Neolithic Village. They have found remains of a supposedly Neolithic village. Pretty cool. I'm not sure it was worth the entrance price though. Then he took us to a factory where they make traditional clay crafts, including all sizes of terracotta warriors. I had a feeling he got some kind of commission if we bought anything, but we didn't!
Next stop was the Terracotta Warrior museum, which is 45mins out of town. This site was found in 1974 by farmers who were digging a well. We actually met one of the farmers. He hangs out in one of the entrance buildings to shake hands with people. He's famous now! There are 3 different "pits" they have found that contain the warriors. one is closed for construction, but they put some of the artifacts in an exhibition hall. the biggest one is Pit 1 where there are thousands of warriors lined up. It seems they've done a lot of work restoring them. They were originally all painted, and each one is designed differently. they were found partially destroyed already by a fire long ago. Scott has some picture up on facebook. I keep trying to upload pictures here but it hasn't been successful lately. anyways, it was pretty cool. our last stop was the tomb of the Emperor that had the warriors built. it's basically a big hill you can climb to the top of. the soil around his tomb supposedly has high levels of mercury, so it hasn't been dug-up.
He drove us to our hotel in the centre of the city. We spend the evening strolling around the Muslim district. Xi'an is kinda in the centre of China and is where the Silk Road actually starts, so there is quite of bit of influence from just west of there, hence the Muslim population. they had lots of interesting street food. most interesting was something we thought was fried potatoes. it was in this massive pan, with some spices. we bought a bowl and when he handed it to me I noticed it kinda jiggled a bit. I shook it some more, and sure enough it was all square pieces of something with spices! it looked like fat! gross! I took a tiny bite and only tasted the hot spices, and then we put the bowl in the garbage! gross! why would they eat fat like that?! yuck! we found a delicious treat though of meat (who knows what) on those vertical rotisseries....like at a Greek pita place. and they put it inside a bun with some lettuce and spices. yum!
our hotel was decent enough for $35 US. though the bed seemed harder than our own! my neck hurt in the morning. The city of Xi'an still has it's ancient city walls. they've been mostly restored, and you can rent bikes and go all the way around. so we got a tandem bike and rode the 14 Km all the way around. it was cold and foggy.....but we made the most of it. it took 1.5hrs to do. after checking out of our hotel we took a little break in Starbucks. it was one of the nicest ones I've been in! the comfy chairs were soooo comfy that we both fell asleep! :) in the afternoon was walked around the city, to the arts and crafts district and then basically made our way back to the train station. we were tired of paying entrance fees to places so we didn't go into any more museums or historical sites :)
for the train ride back we opted to try the "hard sleeper" - so we can say we experienced both. hard sleeper was definitely not as pleasant as soft sleeper. each cabin had 6 beds. the beds were very hard and narrow, and it seemed like people had been using them already! there was no little door to close the cabin room so I had a light in my face all night from the hallway. people were generally respectful and quiet, but it was definitely more crowded. and I refused to use the bathroom :) I waited 'til we got all the way home to our apartment!
we were excited to be home. we got back around 9am, cleaned up then went to church. Scott will be sharing his story/testimony at church this week, and then me maybe next week.
and right now, while Scott is at a volleyball tournament, I'm going to go shopping! I really need to find another pair of jeans. I hope the prices aren't too steep at the Levi's store. and boots.....hopefully Aldo has something decent in my size!
bye for now folks!
