Biking the Ancient City
So I spent a weekend, or 2 whole days in Xi'an city. For those of you who don’t know Xi'an is most famous for the Terracotta Warriors. Which was the first thing we did upon our arrival. We found a bus to take us there, which was an adventure. The line to get on the bus was so long, lucky for us they have so many going and so often.
Once we were there we grabbed an audio guide and set out to see the clay men. Well let me tell you, it was cool to see them, and learn some history, however, they are not as impressive as I was expecting.
We did the tour back wards as suggested in the Lonely Planet guide, starting with the smallest pit and working our way to the largest. And well, once you’ve seen one pit you’ve kinda seen them all. After we left the pit area we tried to find our way back to the city centre so we could do some more touring of the city itself. We got a bit lost on the way to find the buses, but that meant we did some shopping! WOO! Cait and I got some Panda hats and Lars and I got rice hats!
Xi'an is one of the oldest towns in China, and its city wall is still intact. Once we got back we headed to the Bell and Drum tower. One of my Chinese friends told me it was best to see them at night, and she was not joking.
The lights were beautiful. After we saw the towers we tried to find some food in the Muslim Quarter. I felt like I never stopped eating that day. We had so much food, it was so good.
Once we got back to the Hostel we ended up meeting some Canadians from Toronto who were in China for a Kung Fu competition. And we went to bed early that night because we were heading to Mt. Huashan very early.
On the day we got back from the Mountain we went to bed without seeing much of the city because it was late and most touristy things closed early. So we got up early the next day to make use of the time we had before our flights. Our goal was to make it to the Big Goose Pagoda which was suppose to be 27 stories high, but instead found the Small Goose Pagoda which was only about 14 stories high.
After we spent time at the Pagoda we went to bike the city wall. This is a must do while in Xi'an, or so we were told. Let me tell you it really is! We biked from the south gate to the north gate. We got bikes made for two, and rode them around. It was so much fun! Once we were done our bike ride it was time for us to leave Xi'an and head back to Chongqing.
