National Day Vacation to Xi'an in Shaanxi Province

Finally a vacation!!! For the National Day holiday I went to Xi'an in the north of China. National Day is like our 4th of July. I spent 5 days seeing the sights in Xi'an. Meet up with a few other teachers from Buckland who are teaching up in Shaanxi.

The first pictures are of our hostel that we stayed in. It was awesome, I was a little hesitant, thinking that it would be dirty and not a nice place but I was totally wrong. This is outside the hostel.



This is inside the hostel. There were 3 open areas with rooms around them.

This is the city wall which was right outside our hostel.

This is the bar in the basement of the hostel.

On Friday night we got to make and eat dumplings for free. It was very interesting. All that keifli (? I can't spell) making really paid off.

This is the bell tower in the center of the city. The four main roads branch off from here.

Huge shopping mall.

Since we couldn't catch a cab, very sour note about the city, we travelled around in these tut-tuts aka mopeds/motorcycles with carriages in back.





So I had a small breakdown aka Xi'an has a McDonalds and a Subway. I couldn't help myself. We only went to McDonalds twice and Subway twice in the 5 days. What can I say, I'm weak!!!



SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!






So we went to the Terra Cotta Warrior site. It was okay, a little overrated. You go into a building with the warriors and there are tons of people to fight through to get a picture and we only had an 30 minutes to see it before catching the bus back. It was interesting and a sight to see but nothing I would plan a trip around.

This is the coolest thing and I have wanted on since I got here. They make these stamps with your name in English and Chinese. You pick out the stamp, make of stone/marble or something and then they carve in your name by hand.

This is the wall around the city. You can go up and walk all the way around the city on it.

Random photo but this has to be the most elaborate trash can ever.

These guys appeared out of nowhere and put on a little show.

This is looking from the South Gate down toward the Bell Tower in the center of the city. Pay no attention to the random guy who would not move.

Up on the wall.

This is the Muslim Quarter in the Northwest part of the city. There is apparently a number of Chinese Muslims. They have a mosque and everything. By everything I mean they were selling liver on the side of the roads with no refridgeration. YUCK!!! It was the most colorful part of the city.

This is the Drum Tower which in near the Bell Tower. We never went in because everyone says it's a waste of money which I can believe.

We went to the Temple of the Eight Immortals. I think this was my favorite part of the trip. It was a pain in the ass getting out there but it was worth it. In China buses apparently don't travel in a circle, so when you hit the end of the route they just stop and sit for an undetermined amount of time. Needless to say we got on going the wrong way had to get off and then back on another bus. As we always say "This is China!"

We went on the last full day we had in Xi'an and it made the trip for me. There is such a sense of peace and tranquility inside the temple. I don't know if it was just that it was quiet in there, no noise from the city, or what but I felt so good when I left. I was very calming and centering.

It was a Daoist temple and the story goes that you are supposed to throw a coin at the bell in the center of the circle thing under the bridge and if you hit the bell you are predestined to be a Daoist. I throw a coin but only hit the circle thing so I guess Daoism is not for me!

I didn't take any pictures in side any of the temple buildings. There was nothing that said you couldn't but I didn't know and I felt it would be rude. But in this one you can see the statue in the back. There was probably 5-7 building with these statues in them, each one for a different person.

All in all a very good trip and it was really nice to see the other teachers and bitch about all of our problems.

Xi'an is a very polluted city. Smog was the reason we couldn't take off. You could not see the plane through the windows when we were sitting in the terminal. You know it's bad when you can rub your nose and the snot that comes out is black. No wonder the Chinese shut down all the factories before the Olympics.

And of course the issues with catching a cab and our two hour flight delay on the way back didn't help. We have really bad juju when it comes to flight delays. To make the story better we missed the bus back to Yongzhou that we wanted to take so we took a later one. Big Mistake. The later bus doesn't go to the county we live in so we had a freak out moment of not know what to do and of course we can't communicate with any one. Called our FAO, who was drunk at the time, he got the bus driver to get us on another bus but we still didn't know where it went. Luckily there was a girl who is a student at No. 4 school, Juliet from room 317, who told us that the bus would take us right to our school, which it did. I don't know how we always luck out and find someone who speaks English but as long as it keeps happening I don't mind the flight delays.

We were very happy to see our school again, even though nothing has been fixed yet. We will see how the week goes and take it from there. But a good trip nonetheless!