Xi'an Trip

We decided to take a trip to Xi'an during the National Holidays. For those who are interested in Chinese history and geography, here is some information about Xi'an from Wikipedia. The url is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xi%27an for more information on history. Following the info are some great pictures of our trip. Please take a look and give us some feed back. Thanks!

Elwin and Shirley's trip to Xi'an
Day 1, Monday, September 29, 2008

We flew to Xi'an Monday morning to spend the National holidays there. Traveling with us were two lovely ladies from BYU - Idaho. They are in Jinan teaching English and learning Chinese.

We took an airbus from Xi'an airport to Xi'an which was about 30 miles away. After checking into the Gausu Shengzhou Hotel on the east side we proceeded to go to downtown Xi'an. Many people got there before we did. The place was very packed. We visited the Bell Tower, the Drum Tower, the busy souvenir market where the stalls kept on going for miles.

We then went to the Great Goose Pagoda to see the water dance. We met 2 young ladies who were graduate students at one of the universities there. They took us to where the water dance was supposed to take place. It was beautiful, but the most amazing thing was the photographers taking pictures of people standing in between the water sprays. Some had umbrellas so they wouldn't get wet. The photographers were very aggressvie. At one point, we were pushed off the step where we were standing so their customers could come through. Nevertheless, we had a good time.

Please enjoy the slide show below.
Xi'an Day 1 - http://www.flickr.com/photos/shidavis/sets/72157607721849112/
or the slideshow below

Day 2, Tuesday, September 30, 2008

We visited the famous Terra Cotta Warriers. It was indeed an amazing sight. We could not believe we were looking with our naked eyes at these clay soldiers made during 250 BC era. It was worth the trouble of making the trip there. We also visited the mausoleum, the empress' palaces, Banpo Neolithic Village, Lishan Mountain where President Chiang Kai Shek went to meet the communist party officials to work out a truce to fight the Japanese. We were gone for 12 hours. It was exhausting, but lots of fun.

See slide show below.

Day 3 - Wednesday, October 1 - National Day of PRC

We met with Wyatt, who is living in Xi'an to do an internship, and visited several sites. We got on the bus and just went from place to place and saw a lot of places where the locals go. We walked almost all day. We were so tired, but had so much fun too.

Day 4 - October 2, 2008, last day of our stay in Xi'an

We visited the East Gate which was across from our hotel. It was fun browsing and visiting with the locals. The most interesting thing was the road show where people gathered around to listen to the opera singers. We heard the opera singing from a distance and when we got close we saw a man singing Peking opera (female voice). It was very interesting.

See slide show below.