Beijing is the modern capital of China of the last 800 years, and Xian in the central province is the ancient capital going back for thousands of years prior to Beijing. We had a 2 hour flight west to Xian, which has a population of ONLY 10 million. We were fascinated at the urban sprawl of high rise apartments along the hour drive from the airport.
Although the city centre is a walled city, it is much more cosmopolitan than Beijing, and very pretty at night, as we discovered when we explored the city centre streets around our hotel for a few hours, finding an underground city of shops. We thoroughly enjoyed Xian, and could have easily stayed a few more days.
Beautiful bell tower
In 1974 a farmer digging a well discovered some pieces of terracotta pottery, and the find unearthed Emperor Chings Terracotta Army which were to protect him in the afterlife. Over 2000 years ago, Ching was a tyrant, his dynasty only lasted 14 years, he conquered the surrounding 6 kingdoms, and is buried (and his tomb still remains un opened) in a huge man made pyramid shaped hill, next to the warriors.
The museum complex was huge and awesome, and we enjoyed our 4 hour stroll around the 3 massive pits trying to take it all in. Much of each pit is still unexcavated.
We have had some great buffet lunches on the tour, as well as the interesting, informative but mandatory tours to various local craft factories such as the pearl and jade factory, terracotta figurine factory, laquered furniture factory and have visited a Traditional Chinese Medicene Institute (got awesome foot massage) and have a silk factory and tea plantation coming up. As much as they are meant to be shopping outings, we enjoyed watching the craft work and learning alot about these old crafts and Chinese culture.
Those balls are fascinating...
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