The Xi'an Mutiny of 2012

This past weekend we traveled to Xi'an in Shaanxi province.  Our school organized the entire trip, with door to door service for both the teachers and the diplomats.  Not many of our fellow teachers came since many have already been to Xi'an with other tour groups as it is a very popular tourist destination because of the Terra Cotta Warriors (c. 200 BC).  I had not been to Xi'an before but Chris had.  Even still, he is not known to decline an all expenses paid trip anywhere so he was happy to visit again.

Xi'an is about 700 miles southwest of Beijing in central China.  To get there, we took overnight sleeper trains for about 12 hours each way, getting on the train at about 8pm and arriving at about 8am.  We had done the sleeper train before in Vietnam, but the sleeper cars in China were much nicer and cleaner.

Here is a picture of us and our friend Khalid, an Egyptian diplomat.  Notice the flat panel TVs at each bed.  Note them is all that we did, too, since they didn't show a movie or anything.  I tried to turn them on and it was just a blue screen.  Oh well, the illusion of luxury!

Here is the  scene outside the train station after we arrived in the morning.  Xi'an is famous for its walls encircling the city.

I liked this building because of the juxtaposition of architecture -- modern and traditional together.

As soon as we got off the train we got inside our small bus that took us around the city.  The first stop was an ancient city but on the way we saw so many highrises going up in the suburbs.  There were maybe five or six dozen like this all in the same area.

Here is a picture of us outside the ancient city ruins (are they ruins?  I don't know if they in fact constitute ruins; there wasn't much to them.)

 Here is the plaque commemorating the site of the 6,000 year old village.

And this is what is left of the village.  The different levels are where their living features were -- house, sleeping, fire, etc.

Some remains of the villagers...

 Chris and Khalid at the site.

 Here is my friend and fellow teacher, Lily, throwing up the official Chinese photo gang sign.

After visiting the ancient village, we went to a place where they make "official replicas" of the warriors to sell to tourists.  They were really overpriced.  But it was cool to see the workers making them.

Of course outside there was a necessary photo op...  Look!! We are warriors!!!

These are life-sized replicas for people to buy for their homes.  They are really cool and if I had money and a house I would be all over it.

Finally, after seeing the gift shop factory we headed to the main event -- the warriors!  They were quite far outside of town but the scenery was beautiful.  Lots of mountains.  Unfortunately, the weather was smoggy and hazy so it was hard to really appreciate it fully.

At the entrance to the site there was a shop where the guy who actually discovered the warriors in 1974 hangs out and sells autographed copies of his book.  It was kind of a ripoff (200 RMB for a book and a photo with him) but it was cool to see him in person.  How strange it must have been for him to have stumbled across these things.  And to think as they are excavating them, to find one, then another, then another, and more and more and more of them!  Up to 8,000!  A whole army!

 Here we are in a dinky electric vehicle being taken from the parking lot to the entrance to the pits.

The pits are numbered: 1, 2, and 3.  Three is the least exciting, followed by two, while one is where the magic is.  This is pit #3 where there were a few warriors, mostly headless.

Compared to the other two pits, I think #3 was where you could get physically the closest to them.

Some of them were intact (from being reassembled, mostly) but some were scattered in ruins.  The ruins looked really cool.

Here was my attempt at taking a picture of Khalid petting one of the horses, haha.

 Here is me next to pit #3.  It was very dark in these pits so the photos didn't come out great.

This is pit #2.  Pit #2 had many areas unexcavated.

Pit #2 also had lots of information on the sides about how the warriors were made and the history of the excavation process.  Here are two of the warriors in glass cases so visitors can see the details up close.

 Me, checking out the informative plaques.

I believe this was the building for pit #1, the buildup was killing us.

This was our "Chinese married couple" homage.  They always look so expressionless.  I think I nailed it, while Chris on the other hand looks like he is fighting back a smile.

 And a normal one =)

The Terra Cotta Warriors are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Here is inside the much anticipated pit #1.  The bad news was, we had spent so long dawdling around the other pits that by the time we got to the best pit, our incredibly rigidly structured tour group was rounding everyone up to get back on the bus.  This series of pictures were taken over the course of about 10 minutes.  We literally ran around the pit, frantically snapping pictures of one another.  It took me a long time to narrow down the photos to include here -- I think Chris and I have a combined almost 200 pictures JUST of the warriors.  Unfortunately because of bandwidth and my patience level, I cannot post all of them.  I tried to pick the best ones..

 Here is Chris outside the site.

The Chinese rock siestas just like many other countries (i.e. Mexico, Spain, etc. etc. etc.) and they have a habit of sleeping just about anywhere after lunch.  Here is a guy asleep inside the luggage compartment on a bus.

After our first of many foreigner-themed Chinese buffets, we were taken to the East city wall to tour one of the bigger towers.  Here is a picture looking out across the city wall.

Here we are witnessing some diplomatic relations between Egypt and China.  Seriously, it's disgusting how cute Chinese babies are.

Here are Chris and I in front of one of the towers.

 In front of another one of the towers -- Lily, Jess and myself (fellow teachers).

After the city wall, it was time for our dinner show.  En route I snapped this beauty of a board-shorts-themed building.

Tang Palace Dance Show!  There was dancing, music, and best of all, DUMPLINGS SHAPED LIKE ANIMALS!

 Here are our piggy dumplings (pork, of course).

 Fish dumplings shaped like little fish! 

Here is some of the entertainment

I think Khalid videotaped the entire trip on his iPad.  No really, I wouldn't be surprised if he had 36 hours of footage on that thing from the weekend.  I couldn't resist taking a photo of him working the iPad AND the phone.

After the dinner show we walked back to the hotel.  Granted, we were exhausted, but it was one of our only opportunities to check out the street scene in the city.

On the way we passed by an outdoor skating rink that brought me back to the early 1990s, but with a hipster flair.  I took a video:

Then... like an oasis in the desert of our China lives filled with Starbucks and Costa Coffee... the clouds parted.  There it was, after nine months of cold turkey separation.  Dunkin' Donuts.  Our coffee and donuts the next morning were probably the best coffee and donuts I have ever tasted.

Later that night, we went out to a bar with Lily and some people she knew who lived locally.  We made a point to go out to the Muslim Quarter since it was listed as one of the most important sites to see in the city and we hadn't seen it anywhere on our regimented itinerary.

 

At the bar we played darts until we heard something moving in a purse on the table.  The owner of the bar came over and asked how her dog was doing and as she said that, a little baby chihuahua popped out of the purse.  She was so little!!!

 She fit inside Chris's pocket.

Next to our hotel there was an ad for the shop next door.  Armani.. no wait.. Anmani.  With a strange boobless woman on the left.

The next morning we documented our DD euphoria.

 Here is the Drum Tower in the center of town.  Photo taken from the bus.

The first thing we did on Saturday was visit the Forest of Stone Tablets.  These stone tablets date back hundreds of years and many are the starting point of different writing styles of Chinese characters.  It was very interesting to read about them and see the different types carved into the stones.

 Here they are making a print of the carvings to sell in the gift shop.

Next we went to a pagoda that was so old it is starting to tilt to the side, just like the Leaning Tower of Piza.  I think this pagoda's lean is more subtle though, because you can't really notice it in the picture.

At the pagoda, there was a guy who did Chinese character calligraphy of your name.  Here is a video of him in action:

Here is a tourist with a very strangely hip t-shirt with a creepy version of Ronald McDonald...

In the afternoon, we were taken to the History Museum, where we were meant to stay for the entire afternoon until our bus was to take us to the train station where we would eat dinner.  They had allotted us three full hours to explore this relatively small museum and of course it was extremely crowded. 

 

Many of us were tired of the museum after only 45 minutes and wanted to go check out the Muslim Quarter to get some snacks and do some last minute souvenir shopping. 

Unfortunately, the head hanchos on this trip were not receptive to the mention of the Muslim Quarter on the bus.  But as other people in our group were finding spots inside the history museum to take naps, I thought I had to do something.  The group sentiment was that most of us would not be visiting Xi'an again soon since there are just so many other places to see and explore in China -- we all wanted to get to visit the Muslim Quarter before we left, possibly forever.

Finally, I found our boss ladies and tried to explain to them that the Muslim Quarter was something everyone talks about after visiting Xi'an.  They told me it was boring and the history museum is much more interesting -- this is why they gave us so much time to explore it.  I tried as gently as possible to tell them that the Muslim Quarter may be boring to them, but to foreigners, it will probably be really cool to experience.  Surprisingly, they pushed back for about 7-10 minutes while I pleaded our case.  I kept qualifying it by saying things like, "only if it works out" and "we don't want to disrupt the group so we can just go on our own."  Then one of them called the tour guide and hung up and told me to notify those interested in going to the Muslim Quarter to meet at the front of the museum at 4pm.  At 3:50pm EVERYONE had assembled at the front to go visit the Muslim Quarter.  Our bosses seemed annoyed they themselves had to leave the museum.  They announced on the bus we would only have 30 minutes to walk around!  Somehow, that turned into 1.5 hours by the time we got there, though.  They kept overstating the time it would take us to get places by two or three times.

Everyone was so happy they got to check out that part of town.  Jess even bought me a sweet snack that came highly recommended as a reward =)

 Chris, enjoying some local noodles.

 Guy making bread

 Seriously, this place was so cool...  We couldn't believe they were holding out on us.

 Mao memorabilia.

These are probably the best snacks on the planet:  fresh little hot pockets filled with lamb meat.  SO GOOD.

 I am enjoying a little lamb hot pocket in this photo with Khalid =)

 Thumbs up!  Or rather, sideways..?

 Cool guy with a cool beard.

 Street food GALORE.

 These are cicadas in mini cages.  They were so loud.

Chris actually bought one of these.  This guy doesn't look particularly satisfied, but trust me, it feels nice on your scalp!

Then after dinner we headed to the train station.

Last but not least, inside the Xi'an train station there was a very poorly translated sign.  It is supposed to be a caution sign for hot/scalding water...  These never get old!