History class in Xian

This past weekend we took a short trip to Xian, which was once the capital of China during the ancient dynasty era. Touring all the historical spots made each stop feel somewhat like a history lesson, but it was definitely one of the most fun "history" classes I've had!

Our hotel was right across the street from Huiming Jie, which is a street full of Muslim vendors, souvenirs, and food (of course). There was a huge area of fruit stands which sold all sorts of dried fruit. Apparently kiwi is one of Xian's famous fruits, so many of the fruit stands were selling tons and tons of dried kiwi.


We ate some traditional Muslim street food for dinner. This picture is of "yangrou paomuo", which is lamb soup with small pieces of chewy bread and lots of spices inside. I promise the soup tastes much better than it looks or sounds.


On Saturday our day started bright and early with a tour around all the famous historical sites in Xian. Our first stop was a factory that produces fake terra cotta warriors for all the street vendors to sell. They actually looked surprisingly authentic in the factory, much more so than on the streets.


Our next stop was Huaqing Chi, which was the vacation home for ancient Chinese royalty, similar to the Summer Palace in Beijing. Huaqing Chi is known for having hot springs which emporers used to use for bathing. The palace is absolutely gorgeous and situated next to a mountain range that is mentioned in several Chinese legends.



Huaqing Chi is also famous because Chang Kai Shek lived there during World War II after the Japanese overtook Nanjing and he retreated to Xian. There were displays of his old office, bedroom and bathroom, and of course the Taiwanese in me had to take a picture (you can see the Taiwanese flag in the background).


After leaving Huaqing Chi we went to visit the grave of Qing Shihuang, who was the Chinese emperor during the Qing Dynasty. Although his empire only lasted 17 years, Qing Shihuang is known for unifying China through creating a uniform language, system of weights and measures, roads, and connecting the Great Wall into one piece. His mausoleum is actually one big hill, with tons of stairs to hike up in order to get to the point sitting directly above his coffin which is buried underground. Those stairs were quite a workout.


After visiting Qing Shihuang's grave, we finally made it to the Terra Cotta Warriors, which Qing Shihuang had built during his reign so that they could be situated around his grave in order to serve him in his afterlife. The warriors are spaced out into 3 pits, and two of the pits actually have most of the statues covered in order to prevent the terra cotta from being damaged by the sun. One of the pits, however, had row after row of warriors for tourists to look at. The craziest thing about these warriors is that they were discovered by a local farmer who is still alive, and now sits in the Terra Cotta Warrior museum signing autographs for tourists who want to meet him.


We ended our day with a bike ride on the Xian city walls. This was probably the most enjoyable part of the day, since the walls were almost empty by this point and we could just ride bikes down a straight, smooth, and wide path. Too much fun!


This coming up weekend is CET's cultural immersion weekend, where we will visit peasant farms and give presentations about American life at a middle school in an area just outside of Beijing. Looking forward to getting out of the city for yet another weekend!