Today was quite an early start especially since the cab driver called me at 4:45 (15 minutes early) and from what I gathered told me he was here. I rounded up Bryan, Ron, and Jess and we made our way down the street to stop by the ATM and find the driver. Luckily we found him because he spoke zero English and I had no idea what he was saying on the phone. I whipped out some Chinese skills and told him to take us to the Hongqiao Airport Terminal 1. We were right where we needed to be in only about 30 minutes and had plenty of time to check in and grab some breakfast before our flight. We found a little convenience store/bakery and I got some grape juice and coffee cake, which were overpriced but delicious. After utilizing the free airport wifi for a while, it was time to board and we were quickly off the terminal on our way to Xi’an. After a couple of hours, mostly comprised of sleep for me, we landed at the Xi'an Xianyang Airport. We got off the plane with our eyes peeled as a driver was supposed to be waiting for us with a sign with my name on it. After looking around for a while with no luck I called the hostel and they seemed confused that we were at the airport and said they would call me back. After about 10 minutes of no word I called them again and they said that the driver should be there any minute and was just at the wrong terminal and sure enough we found him a few minutes later.
We walked out to his car and loaded our bags and got on the highway only to get off after a couple of exits. The driver didn’t speak English so we were extremely confused when we pulled up to what looked to be a gas station and he motioned for us to get out of the car and walk to the exit and wait for him there. We obeyed and then decided to watch and see what he was doing. Turns out we were actually at a CNG, or Compressed Natural Gas station, and that his car runs on compressed gas, which was pretty cool to us enginerds. We got back in the car for about an hour ride to the hostel with a nice drive through the city. Upon arrival we checked in and then walked around the hostel and were pretty amazed. It was really cute and nice and we all were big fans.
As soon as we put our stuff down we decided to check out the menu they had because we heard they had good food. I ended up getting a pesto chicken sandwich that was really good, especially since I have been deprived of pesto and all of my mom’s great cooking for so long. While we were eating, out of nowhere I see another student in our program, Scott, who just happened to be staying a few doors down in the same hostel. We talked with him for a little while until he set out to explore the city and once we finished eating we did the same. Our first mission was to make it to the Terracotta Warriors, so we talked to the hostel for some tips. They offered a tour but it had already left so we decided we could do it on our own and it would even be cheaper.
We caught a bus right outside of the hostel that was supposed to take us to the train station. Problem was, we ran to catch the bus before we realized it was going the wrong way and were going to have to take a giant loop around to get to the train station. After a few stops we decided to just hop off and catch one going the other way, which turned out to not be a problem at all. Once we arrived at the train station we really had no idea where to go to catch a bus. We wandered around for a little while and asked a few people where to go and eventually found bus 306, which is where we needed to be. For only 14 yuan, we got a roundtrip ticket to and from the warriors and were on our way. After an hour or two we got dropped off and made our way up the hill to the entrance. Unfortunately we didn’t realize until after the fact that we had to buy tickets all the way back from where we came from and had to walk all the way back. After yet again getting a clutch student discount, we headed back to the entrance for take two.
Once we got in, we headed to a little museum area for some background and then headed to Pit 1, which is the biggest and most impressive of the three. I think I can speak for all of us when I say we were just blown away by the magnitude of what we were seeing. The stadium was bigger than a football field and was just full of all of these warriors. It is amazing that every single warrior is different and how detailed they all are. The craziest part to me, though, is that if the well site that led to the discovery had been dug another 5 feet away, this amazing site would have never been found. It is also pretty crazy that they are still working to uncover more and more of these warriors and how intricate of a process it is. These warriors become one with the ground around them and are broken in pieces, yet they have managed to do such an amazing job of uncovering them and piecing them back together.
After taking a full 360 and taking plenty of pictures, we decided at the pace we were going we needed to check out the other two pits. We went to Pit 2 next, which was probably the least exciting. There were basically just remains of the roof beams as the warriors in that section haven’t really been dug up yet. There was a little display section, however, with some cool warriors in cases and some of their weapons.
 |
| Pit 2 |
We then moved on to Pit 3, which was a little more exciting and had some cool warriors and horses as well as a good amount of rubble that would soon be pieced together to make more warriors. After seeing all of the pits it was about time to catch our bus back, so we made our way back down the hill. Jess and I grabbed some pineapple as a snack and then were on our way back to the train station.
 |
| Pit 3 |
We caught the bus back to the hostel from the train station and then decided to just have a quick dinner at the hostel so we could make it to the Big Goose Pagoda light and water show by 8:30. I had a quesadilla, which was pretty good, and then we were ready to go. Jess stayed behind so that she could study for her exam Monday, and unfortunately she missed out on a lot. We took a bus to get us pretty close to the pagoda and then walked the rest of the way there. As we got closer we see this giant crowd of people surrounding what looked like it was about to be a fountain show. It was hard to see over all the people but then we noticed that there were a few people standing in the middle of the crowd and couldn’t decide if it was allowed or not. We decided to just go for it and a few minutes later we were right in the middle of the light and water show with the best view you could ask for. We got a ton of pictures and got a little wet in the process and then Bryan and I decided to just go for it and run right through. Ron snagged some good picture of us as we ran through and got pretty soaked. Luckily, it was such a nice night out that we weren’t even cold! We stood there in awe at how cool all of the shooting water and neon lights were and decided this may have even been cooler than the warriors. After about 20 minutes into the show we decided to get closer to the actual pagoda and see the whole show from above. Just as we got up the hill and saw the view, the show stopped and we decided to try and find the nearby lake.
After a little walking we decided it was too far away and Jess was getting antsy to get out so we went back to the hostel to meet her and then headed over to see the Bell Tower, Drum Tower, and the Muslim Quarter. There were all sorts of street food including this stuff that seemed to just be giant rice noodle chunks that looked really good. Ron ended up getting this circular bread filled with beef that looked delicious and Bryan got some bread. Jess and I then found this stand where I got some noodles and she got this bread thing stuffed with sprouts, peppers, and onions. All of the food was great and there was so much of it that we had to get Bryan and John to help finish it off. Very full and content, we headed back to the hostel to get some sleep since we had an early start ahead.
 |
| Drum Tower |
 |
| Bell Tower |
 |
| Muslim Quarter |
No comments:
Post a Comment