Xi'an is one of those places where you have to visit when you're in China, so we made an effort to include it in our spring break plans, even if we were only able to stay there for a day. Xi'an is the capital of the Shaanxi Province. It was originally called Chang'an before the Ming Dynasty. It is known as one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China.
Problem #1:
Phil, Sondre, and I parted ways with the rest of the group, as we headed towards Xi'an and the rest of them headed back to Shanghai. Our first problem of the trip occurred when we found out our flight to Chongqing would be delayed two hours (our layover was two hours too...). We ended up missing our second flight from Chongqing to Xi'an; therefore, had to spend the night at the airport, and find another ticket to Xi'an in the morning, which thankfully worked out, and we arrived in Xi'an around 8am.
Finally leaving Chongqing and heading towards Xi'an bright and early.
Famous Xi'an hand pulled noodles from Horse and Tiger Noodles. *Just an indication of how popular this place was: there was a wait at 9am.*
The main attraction of Xi'an: Terracotta Warriors, which is a collection of sculptures depicting the armies of the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. The purpose of the Terracotta Warriors is to protect the Emperor in his afterlife. There are four main pits: pit one contains 11 corridors, pit two contains cavalry and infantry units and war chariots, which represents the military guard, pit three is the command post, and pit four is still left unfinished. The attraction is about an hour from the train station.
Xi'an City Wall was initially built during the Tang Dynasty, but enlarged during the Ming Dynasty. The city wall includes four gates, Changle in the east, Anding in the west, Yongning in the south, and Anyuan in the north. The south gate is considered to be the most beautifully decorated, usually the gate that holds any major ceremonies, but unfortunately we were unable to make it there due to time.
If interested, anyone can bike along the city wall, which takes about 2-3 hours.
Muslim Quarter: This is the main area of the Muslim Community in Xi'an. It is located north of the West Street in the city center and covers several blocks. By the time we arrived at the "start" of the Muslim Quarter, we only had about 40 mins left before our train leaves. However, the Muslim Quarter is also about a 40 min walk away from the train station...and here is where problem #2 appeared.
Problem #2:
We assumed that it would be easy to catch a taxi from the Muslim Quarter back to the train station. We were very wrong. Taxis that are in service or empty were hard to come by at the time we needed it. Therefore, we were frantically trying to find a ride back to the station, until a sketchy van pulled up and offered us a ride. Desperate, we took the offer, but he wasn't able to drop us off at the station, only nearby. So, after he dropped us off, we ran for our lives to catch the train...pretty much running through Xi'an and making our train with only a few seconds to spare. Success!
Cheers to making the train back to Shanghai and cheers to the end of the most adventurous spring break of my college career thus far!
Also, special thanks to Tiana for planning all the other parts of our spring break trip!
No comments:
Post a Comment