14 October 2007
China Part III
After two days of early starts we got a bit of a break on the first morning in Xi'an. The plan was to take in the terracotta warriors. As with everything in China they are not really in Xi'an but about 70km away. Instead of taking a rented car we went with the more tourist bus. It was slower but less expensive (which really isn't an issue in China) but the really nice thing was that we all had leg room to relax.
The terracotta warriors were built about 2200 years ago and lost shortly thereafter. They were discovered by some peasents digging a well in 1974. Since then they have built some impressive building around the dig sites but have not really unearthed all that many of the over 6000 warriors. Sure the major part of the work is putting the pieces of the warriors back together (they were broken when an invading army trashed it shortly after they were sealed in.)
Karl and I took a break around lunch for some beers (a re-creation of the Forbidden City beer-amid) and Paul and Lynn joined us shortly after. Once we were done Karl had to return his audio tour so Paul went with him. Lynn and I did not see them again until we were back to the parking lot. At that point Paul and acquired us a car for the ride home and some beers.
On the ride home we negotiated they cabby to be our rented man for our ride out the Hua Shan (one of the 5 sacred Taoist mountains). We walked out to the Muslim district where we had a great dinner (very spicy) and then did a bit of haggling for goods. Paul is quite good at this by now and was able to get some great deals for us.
Since the mountain was to be another "active" day we had to get an early start. I think we met the cabby at 8am for our 2 hour drive. Paul insisted that we take the most demanding way up the mountain (which we all later appreciated) which was called the "soldier's way". This path was the shortest way up the mountain which also means that it is the steepest. There were two sections of the climb that involved us going up a "staircase" which was near vertical with a large loop chain to help pull yourself up.
It took us a mere two hours to get to the top and meet up with all of the tourists that had taken the gondola up (10 minute ride). Once up there we had a bit of lunch (a couple of bananas and some beer) and then walked around the peaks. Just as we started our descent (down the longer path) it began to sprinkle. The 1st part of the descent was nearly as steep and any part of the "soldier's way" but after the first 30minutes it became much easier and was a pleasant walk back to the parking lot. We had a nice dinner at the town at the bottom and then had our man drive us back into town.
We had little to do the next day before we got on our plane to Yangshou so we took it nice and easy. ¶ 18:15
The terracotta warriors were built about 2200 years ago and lost shortly thereafter. They were discovered by some peasents digging a well in 1974. Since then they have built some impressive building around the dig sites but have not really unearthed all that many of the over 6000 warriors. Sure the major part of the work is putting the pieces of the warriors back together (they were broken when an invading army trashed it shortly after they were sealed in.)
Karl and I took a break around lunch for some beers (a re-creation of the Forbidden City beer-amid) and Paul and Lynn joined us shortly after. Once we were done Karl had to return his audio tour so Paul went with him. Lynn and I did not see them again until we were back to the parking lot. At that point Paul and acquired us a car for the ride home and some beers.
On the ride home we negotiated they cabby to be our rented man for our ride out the Hua Shan (one of the 5 sacred Taoist mountains). We walked out to the Muslim district where we had a great dinner (very spicy) and then did a bit of haggling for goods. Paul is quite good at this by now and was able to get some great deals for us.
Since the mountain was to be another "active" day we had to get an early start. I think we met the cabby at 8am for our 2 hour drive. Paul insisted that we take the most demanding way up the mountain (which we all later appreciated) which was called the "soldier's way". This path was the shortest way up the mountain which also means that it is the steepest. There were two sections of the climb that involved us going up a "staircase" which was near vertical with a large loop chain to help pull yourself up.
It took us a mere two hours to get to the top and meet up with all of the tourists that had taken the gondola up (10 minute ride). Once up there we had a bit of lunch (a couple of bananas and some beer) and then walked around the peaks. Just as we started our descent (down the longer path) it began to sprinkle. The 1st part of the descent was nearly as steep and any part of the "soldier's way" but after the first 30minutes it became much easier and was a pleasant walk back to the parking lot. We had a nice dinner at the town at the bottom and then had our man drive us back into town.
We had little to do the next day before we got on our plane to Yangshou so we took it nice and easy. ¶ 18:15
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How cool. One of my favorite things about visiting the old world is seeing the really old stuff - stuff older than our whole country. 2200 year old terracotta warriors? Incredible.
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