China! China was one of the craziest places we’ve ever been to. From the huge amounts of history to the crazy culture – we experienced it all.
After a late night flight into Xi’an (and discovering we hadn’t booked a hotel car- so negotiating our way past the language barrier to get a cab)…we awoke Saturday AM and started with one of our highlights. We got to check out tens of thousands of terra-cotta warriors in huge pits that were bigger than football fields. It felt like we were in an airplane hanger! Led by our new friend Mary (our guide for the day) we got to see the fixing process and the people working on restoring the warriors -as when the fragments are discovered it is the world’s hardest jigsaw puzzle to put back together. It turns out that the anicent Chinese warriors used a quasi mass production to make similar bodies, legs and feet for the warriors- but each had a unique face. All parts of an army (archers, generals, horse chariots, infantry) were present to protect the crazy emperor, Emperor Qin (who China is named after, ruled from 221 to 201 BC). They also used to be painted with gorgeous bright colors- which unfortunately fade as soon as they are exposed to air. The warriors were discovered back in 1974 by a farmer digging a well- we even got to meet him at the site.
Next stop was the Wild Goose Pagoda, originally built back in the 600’s. The main temple holds the writings of the key teachings of Buddha- originally carried to China by a Chines monk, Xuanzang hwo brought Buddhism to China after traveling back from India- we saw his path back and forth- he should have gotten a GPS. Jay and Bee got to practice their calligraphy skills- being taught by a master!
While we were in Xi’an we also did a bike ride along the city wall and it turns out that the entire inner city was only the palace and it was 5 miles squared. Unfortunately, it got completely destroyed so it is no longer there. Ride was awesome though- pedaling through (and on) histroy!
As the sun set, we toured the crazy food markets of the Muslim Quarter, saw the beautiful lit up Bell and Drum Towers and then feasted on our dumpling buffet- same one we visited 8.5 years ago!
The next day was mostly a travel day- but in true China style it was anything but underwhelming. We tried our luck on a high speed train. The train station was huge- felt like 3 time the size of 30th street in Philly! Once on-board, the train zipped through the country, reaching speeds of 300 km/hr! Ben and dad tricked the length of the whole train- we think it was close to 0.5 km long! Once we reached Beijing we took a 2 hour ride up to our hotel in the Mutianyu Great Wall! Passed by beautiful fields of bright flowers and through tiny villages. Once we reached the hotel (more of a homestay), we took a quick walk around the village- including some dead end trails. We then feasted on a home-cooked meal prepared by the homestay owner – with awesome dumplings, great chicken and veggies!
The next day we rose early for another trip highlight- the Great Wall. The Great Wall was built over many centuries as a way to keep out the invaders (especially those mean Mongols) from the North. Earliest sections were built as far back as the 7th century BC with Emperor Qin connecting them together around 200 BC (mostly earthen walls at this point). The wall we know today was mostly built during the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). It stretches out 5500 miles and if you count all of the offshoots total length is almost 13000 miles- impressive!
It had rained they before we got there so the air was clear and we had the most beautiful clear day for the wall. We were able to get on the wall by 8:30 beating all of the crowds. When we arrived we took a chairlift up to the wall with beautiful views of the surrounding scenery! The wall traveled up and down all of the peaks and valleys of the surrounding terrain- truly awesome scenery- one part in particular went over a few steep rocky peaks called the Ox Horn! Every few 100 m, there was a tower, where soldiers would keep stand guard and even sleep! The towers had awesome archways and windows and secret staircase. There were also quite a few spurs off the wall- adding extra protection against those fiesty Mongols. Towards one end- we climbed over 500 giant stairs (some of the stairs are look 1.5 ft tall.) to reach the tower. We spent over 6 hours on the wall- and even settled for an ice cream and beer for lunch to extend our time! It was a long hike and we walked the entire publicly open part of the wall- and knocked off 181 flights of stairs. It was really cool but really tiring. Our legs still are sore even as we write this. To get back down from the wall – we zipped down in an alpine slide- very cool! We then headed back to our homestay- for another round of the delicious dumplings, a movie night and a hard earned rest!
National Geographic’s got nothing better! Your photos are awesome! I think it’s all the smiles. Another fantastic journey!