I spent this weekend in Sha'anxi Province with my friend Kari. She lives in a small town called Xianyang, which is about 20 minutes and a Y3.50 train ride from Xi'An. Xi'An is famous.
I left Thursday night (after rearranging my Friday classes to earlier in the week) and arrived Friday morning. Kari met me at the train station in Xi'An and we went to grab some coffee at Starbucks. I haven't seen her in awhile, so it was nice to catch up. We toured around the Muslim Market (Hui is how the Chinese refer to Muslims; there are a lot of them in Xi'An because it's where the Silk Road started).
Saturday, I went back to Xi'An to see the Terracotta Warriors. This is the main attraction of the ancient walled city of Xi'An. Just outside the city, in 1974, farmer building a well discovered an underground city of soldiers. Excavation followed and it was found that this was part of the tomb of the First Emperor Qin (the mauseleum isn't very far away). It's astounding. There are thousands of life sized men made out of clay from a nearby mountain. They all have different faces, bodies, and clothing. There are horses, archers, calvarymen, and other important military things. And it was all underground for 2000 years without anyone knowing.
It went on display in 1976, which was probably a little too quick. They aren't finished excavating it and they can't work continuously because of all the tour groups with matching hats tromping through. To this day, they still haven't finished digging it all up, and periodically some of it is closed to visitors.
Luckily, I got to see each and every warrior that has been found thus far. This emperor must have been a strange, strange man. But I'm not complaining. I spent more money on yet another tourist trap, but I think this one was worth it.
Sunday, I met Kari for lunch between classes and we had a picnic at a nearby park (yes, Kari has class on Sunday). I'd picked up some snacks and drinks and we just sat in the sun, ran through some sprinklers, and walked around near the water. It was very nice for my last few hours in Xianyang.
That evening, I caught a train from Xianyang to Xi'An. It left at 6:05 pm. My train back to Beijing left at 6:48 pm. I knew I was cutting it close, but at that point, I had no choice. I arrived in time, didn't even leave the terminal (just went up on the next platform for the other train was), and found my bed to relax for 12 hours.
I arrived home Monday morning at about 8:00 am. I had class at 9:55 am this morning.
