I have always wanted to see the Terra Cotta Army because I'm just an all around anthropology geek. So my parents, aunt, uncle, and I joined a tour to go to Xi'an. There were only two things that I wanted to do in Xi'an: see the Terra Cotta Soldiers and eat the dumpling banquet. Little did I know, there was actually a lot to see in Xi'an.
According to our tour guide, there were actually a lot more foreign tourists that come and visit Xi'an, so the government thought to take advantage of it by building a large cultural center pictured below to explain and show off the Chinese sites. It was pretty impressive. We went on a really rainy day so there wasn't that many people there.
Xi'an also has a leaning temple. I took a picture of it but according to our tour guide, it used to lean a lot more before they fixed it.
Finally, we got to see the Terra Cotta Army. It was amazing because it's huge. I never thought that there were that many figures. They are nowhere close to unearthing all of the figures and they think that they will be excavating for another decade or more. Here are some horses in the pits.
All the figures do have different expressions and they are dressed differently to signify rank and position.
Here's another smaller pit.
This is the famous chariot with horses but this was a replica because the real one was in Shanghai for the Expo.
Xi'an has many temples and here is a pretty large one.
We also managed to have an elaborate dumpling dinner at De Fa Chang.
Our hotel had a large art piece in the back of the famous Chinese emperor, which I can't remember the name of right now.
It was pretty rainy when we went to Xi'an so we didn't get to go up Hua Shan (Hua Mountain) a very famous scenic landmark in China. So we took a picture at the base of the mountain.
That's it for all the Xi'an sights. All in all, it was a pretty fabulous trip. We actually went to Xi'an with Hong Thai travel agency and while we were there, we heard about the hostage situation in the Philippines. The scary thing was that were were looking to go there with the same travel agency. Luckily, we didn't. So next up is Singapore and Malaysia!
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