My First out of Beijing Experience... Xi An

Got back from Xi An at 9am on Monday and it's been a whirlwind since. 50 words of missed dictations that I had to study for, overdue prep work for speaking class, a 500 character essay on a time when I felt most lonely and scared. On top of it all.. I have a flu and a cough. Other than that.. I'm surviving. ;D It's about time I blog about Xi An. I had a great time. I only wish we could have spent more time there. It was a 10 hour train ride from Beijing to XiAn and back. My first time on a Chinese train. Let me first say that walking in a group of about 35 Americans really is a very interesting experience. At one point at the Xi An train station, I seriously felt like everyone in the train station stopped what they were doing just to watch us walk past. Coming to China, I realized that looking different (having a different color skin.. not being yellow skin) really gets you stares. And Chinese people are not subtle at all about staring. Some of them will just deliberately walk up to you, stand next to you, turn to face you, and just start staring at you, like you were a museum exhibit. And you know what.. the paler your skin, the blonder your hair, the taller you are... the more stares you get. But enough about that. There's too much to tell about XiAn... the food, the massive amounts of people everywhere, the history, the sights and sounds...

This is our waiting area to get on the train. See the massive amount of people in our waiting area?? Do you see how some of them are facing the camera... yeah, they were staring at us. Okay, imagine a huge train station, imagine every corner of the train station looking like this one picture... Trains are a major form of transportation from city to city in China.

These are the snacks that we brought on to the train, along with 2 packs of 'pu ke ka' (poker cards). Notice the huge bottle of water on the left. Almost everyone brought one bottle just like that or bigger than that to Xi An. haha. Oh and '方便面’ instant noodles.. we all brought at least one.

This was the sight that greeted us once we stepped out of the train station. Pretty smoggy air. But later in the day, the air became slightly less smoggy. Obviously there even more people outside the train station! See that wall that stretches all the way..? that is the city wall of XiAn.. yeah, XiAn actually still has its city wall surrounding the entire city.... cool eh?

First stop.. The Great Mosque 大清真寺. Did you know that XiAn has a very big Muslim population. I thought that was really interesting. The mosque was really pretty. Very unlike mosques that I'm used to seeing. This mosque's architecture was obviously very much influenced by Chinese architecture. It resembled a Buddhist temple very much, accept for the Arabic words and Quran excerpts that can be found around the compound. The 2nd picture shows the prayer room for the men.

Then of course of course, no trip to XiAn would be complete without a trip to see the Terracota Warriors. IT WAS AMAZING! Beyond Amazing! My friends and I were in Pit 1 (the first site where the warriors were found), standing in front of 6000 of these warrior statues feeling completely blown away. Said Annika, "This is what was found from olden days China.. what would people in a hundred or so years time find left behind from us.. Nothing!"

Then of course we had to visit the Muslim street and do some shopping. I bought scarves. As you all know... I have an obsession with scarves. I was so excited to be able to practice my bargaining skills, you have no idea! Some of the sellers even mistaken me for a native Chinese person 中国人。Didn't want to correct them and later be given a much higher price.. so I went along with them. haha.

The Muslim street had so many yummy 小吃 snacks. Such as these dried fruits. I just had to get a packed of assorted dried fruits. Been munching on them every day since I've been back from XiAn.

And my 'rose' flavored snack that I very bravely tried and LOVED! The only word that Stephanie and I managed to catch from the seller was 'mei gui' meaning rose. So I just call it my rose-flavored snack. It was delish.

On Sunday, we walked around sightseeing on our own and actually managed to feast our eyes on quite a lot. First we went to the Tang Dynasty Paradise.. which is I guess a man-made park recreated to show the beauty of the Tang Dynasty. Or something along those lines. Sunday was Women's Day in China.. so us girls only paid 35 kuai to enter the Paradise whereas the guys had to pay 50 kuai. haha. Found this really amazing rock garden place that was basically the Chinese version of Mount Rushmore, on a smaller scale of course. But it was really really pretty. With beautiful Chinese women carved out from rock.
Then we decided to risk all the stares and dress up in Tang Dynasty costumes and model for pictures. It was great fun. Austin as emperor 皇帝, and us 5 girls as concubines/wives.

Then we had a Dumpling Feast! Dumplings galore. Dumplings like these duck shaped ones. So yummy!

Oh... and and picture of the day from XiAn!!!! This little kid sitting on his dad's shoulders. Look closely at his hat.. isn't it cute?? now look directly down.. to the kid's lower body. See his cute lil bottom sticking out? haha. Chinese boys always wear crotchless, buttless clothes like this. I find it so adorable. They seriously just walk around with their front and back uncovered.. but all other parts covered with a very very thick layer of clothing. It's hilarious!