Xi'an

We arrived in Xi'an after a 10 hour over night train ride. The trains are an interesting way to travel around China. We got lucky and we(Agustin, Michelle, Rob, and I) occupied 4 out of the 6 slots in our section of the train. At 9:30PM they turn off the lights and at 7AM they turn on the lights and open up the curtains. The ride is noisy and bumpy and the width of the bed is about 2 inches to either side of your bodies width.....a tight squeeze! So, needless to say its a cheaper and good way to get from point A to point B, but not the most comfortable and restful way!
When we arrived and made our way out of the station we saw a women with a sign-Kelly Hallett...she worked for the hostel we had booked through, thought that was funny, picture is coming soon!
Our hostel was HUGE and the cheapest one on Hostelworld.com. Since we keep staying at the cheapest hostel in each town we keep running into the other same penny pinchers! At this hostel they gave a free coffee upon arrival and a free beer each night!

Our first day we walked around the Muslim quarter and bargained for some food! They sell every fake name brand piece of clothing and accessories possible in China! NorthFace jackets for $20, Nike shoes for $10, and Rolex watches for $10! We found a Walmart and bought some supplies to make ham sandwiches, they were SO good! We have found that most of the food in China is fried. Refrigeration is hard to come by, so all their food is preserved, fried, or boiled. Agustin's favorite type of food is Chinese, however he has been quite disappointed in Chinese "Chinese Food".

Our second day in Xi'an we went to see the The Terracotta Army. Upon ascending the throne at the age of 13 (in 246 BC), Qin Shi Huang, later the first Emperor of all China, had begun to work for his mausoleum. It took 11 years to finish. A group of peasants uncovered some pottery while digging for a well nearby the royal tomb in 1974. It is one of the 8th wonders of the world.
There are 3 pits discovered so far, and they are still working on recovering these artifacts. They were all covered in meters of dirt, and many have cracked into little pieces over time. While we were there we saw them working on digging pieces out and gluing them back together. SO far 8,000 artifacts have been discovered and by the looks they have MANY more years to find more! It was an amazing sight!

We visited the Muslim quarter a couple more times to taste the yummy food and look around the shops. On our last night in Xi'an we went to a free light and water show. It started at 8:30pm, but we got there around 7:45pm and the crowd had already formed. The thing about China is, there are over 1.3 Billion people, so if you think that you are just going to view something on a random Tuesday night and be alone....YOU ARE WRONG! Everywhere we go there is noise and thousands and thousands of people. They say at any given time there are 10 million people on trains here in China...yet alone the roads, bikes, and air. There is constant movement in China, no peace and quiet....if there is some, we havent found it.
So, we enjoyed the light and water show along with the other thousands and thousands of people!

Xi'an was another walled city, but HUGE! Its the 3rd most populated city in China.

Our next destination is Chengdu, about a 16 hour train ride to the South!