Xian
August 18, 2002
Train Station - about a 14 - 16 hour train ride from Beijing to Xian! Check out our bunks =P There are six beds per section with no door unless you pay more to get a private room. Our section was at the end of our train car so we had a lot of traffic walking by. The weirdest thing happened to me too: in the middle of the night I woke up and there was some random dude sitting at the foot of my bed! Apparently he was just resting, he must have had a top bunk or something and just wanted to sit down. In any which case I didn't appreciate it much and slowly pushed him off =P haha but in a nice way ;).
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| Beijing West Train Station | Look it's a nice bright... | ... map of China =) | Inside the Train station... | ...with the schedule behind us. |
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| There's our train as... | ...we get ready to board. | These are the bunks we slept in. | Me: bottom bunk, Kai: top bunk | No idea who the guy is in the middle bunk =P. |
August 19, 2002
HuaQing Hot Spring
Dating back more than 2000 years to the Zhou dynasty, the hot springs have been enjoyed by a succession of emperors and other important figures. The Lake of Nine Dragons is supposedly 43 degrees Celsius all year long as stated in the sign that we took a picture of. The water was pretty warm and I was a little afraid to touch it at first, but as you can tell we began to enjoy it =P.
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August 19, 2002
Terracotta Warriors
In 1974, a group of peasants digging for water discovered the army, which consisted of over 7000 slightly larger-than-life clay warriors and horses waiting in battle formation and posed according to Qin dynasty directives on the art of warfare. Each face differs from those around it, and the clay men's hands try to hold the still-sharp and still-poisoned Qin-era weapon, which have been taken away. There are three vaults and all are partially excavated. The first vault, measuring 210m by 60m, houses 6000 soldiers; the second contains 1000; and the third holds only 68, accompanied by a war chariot. It is suggested that the excavated army is just the beginning and that it is only part of an even more magnificent system still buried in Qin Shihuang's tomb. I'm not sure if we were really allowed to take pictures inside because there were signs saying not to, but hey this is China and no one follows the rules so here they are =). Notice the paintings we took pictures of. It had some sort of silver paint in it that reflected light back really nice so we thought it'd be a cool picture.
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August 19, 2002
BanPo Neolithic Village
Part dry archeological exhibit and part theme park, Banpo is an on-site museum of a 6000-year-old matriarchal clan community in the Yellow River valley, discovered in 1953 and opened to the public five years later. The Great Hall is the excavated dwelling area of the Banpo people. Four houses have been reconstructed at the site, and individual graves, group graves, and children's graves have been unearthed. Check out the pictures I have of these graves. I even took a picture of the sign that explains the children's graves =/. Near the back of the site, enter the "authentic" reproduction of the matriarchal village through an enormous statue of a reclining woman. Do you see what I see? =P Banpo also houses a slightly voyeuristic exhibition of photographs of the "primitive man."
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