Phew. Today was a day-and-a-half. We started the morning at 5 am in Beijing and are ending it here in Xi'an! Last night, we ended up wandering the streets for a bit searching for fireworks (they were supposed to have them in a ton of different parks around the city). The park we went to, however, was closed off. When a guy we were with (who works at our hostel) asked a policeman why they did not tell the people the park would be closed, the policeman said "there wasn't enough time." When the guy countered, "you had 7 years!", the policeman admitted that if they had told the people it would be closed, everyone would have just camped out. A Chinese girl we were with nodded and said that would have absolutely happened.
So instead we went to a bar and celebrated the opening ceremony with many many nationalities. And yes, the US team got booed by just about everyone. It was cool to see groups of Chinese outside, huddled around TVs watching the ceremony. We actually left the bar before the torch was lit, but we were able to follow its progress as we drove by the big screens around the city and the little neighborhood TVs and ended up back at our hostel right before it happened (took forever!).
We flew to Xi'an this morning because all the trains were booked from Beijing to Xi'An (most likely people getting out before the Olympics) and they have been having crazy airfare discounts do to a decline in tourism (earthquake, T!b3t, Olympics, VISA restrictions). The flight was only about 2 hours (vs. 12 hours on the train), but we had mechanical difficulties (yes, that worried me tremendously...in addition to the Chinese airplane food we were given) so we were later than anticipated.
Xi'an is known for its close proximity to the terra cotta warriors created during the Qing dynasty for one crazy emperor. It took 720,000 people 40 years to create the thousands of warriors, chariots, and horses that make up his elaborate tomb (while he was still alive!) As soon as we got to Xi'an we high-tailed it out to see the warriors about an hour away. The coolest thing (in my opinion) is that each soldier is so unique and different from the others and there are thousands of them.
The city of Xi'an is also known for its bell tower and drum tower (used to indicate time way back when) and it's Muslim night market. We had dinner at the night market and it was pretty amazing. There are a ton of vendors set up all down one street making similar foods--kebabs, fried tortilla sandwiches, fried desserts, and dried fruit. Heaven on earth and probably our favorite part of the city... OH and the fact that it is 77 degrees here today and absolutely gorgeous. We even saw a patch of blue sky and the sun！
We're off to see KRISTEN tomorrow! We'll be taking a train in the morning to her Peace Corps city of Lanzhou.
So instead we went to a bar and celebrated the opening ceremony with many many nationalities. And yes, the US team got booed by just about everyone. It was cool to see groups of Chinese outside, huddled around TVs watching the ceremony. We actually left the bar before the torch was lit, but we were able to follow its progress as we drove by the big screens around the city and the little neighborhood TVs and ended up back at our hostel right before it happened (took forever!).
We flew to Xi'an this morning because all the trains were booked from Beijing to Xi'An (most likely people getting out before the Olympics) and they have been having crazy airfare discounts do to a decline in tourism (earthquake, T!b3t, Olympics, VISA restrictions). The flight was only about 2 hours (vs. 12 hours on the train), but we had mechanical difficulties (yes, that worried me tremendously...in addition to the Chinese airplane food we were given) so we were later than anticipated.
Xi'an is known for its close proximity to the terra cotta warriors created during the Qing dynasty for one crazy emperor. It took 720,000 people 40 years to create the thousands of warriors, chariots, and horses that make up his elaborate tomb (while he was still alive!) As soon as we got to Xi'an we high-tailed it out to see the warriors about an hour away. The coolest thing (in my opinion) is that each soldier is so unique and different from the others and there are thousands of them.
The city of Xi'an is also known for its bell tower and drum tower (used to indicate time way back when) and it's Muslim night market. We had dinner at the night market and it was pretty amazing. There are a ton of vendors set up all down one street making similar foods--kebabs, fried tortilla sandwiches, fried desserts, and dried fruit. Heaven on earth and probably our favorite part of the city... OH and the fact that it is 77 degrees here today and absolutely gorgeous. We even saw a patch of blue sky and the sun！
We're off to see KRISTEN tomorrow! We'll be taking a train in the morning to her Peace Corps city of Lanzhou.
1 comment:
YAY you're almost here and you can definitely upload photos :) We went to a bar too, for the opening ceremony, but we made everyone cheer for the US team!
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