Xi'an etc

Last weekend we went on our 3rd vacation. 8 of us decided to go to Xi'an and the surrounding cities. It was a great trip; the weather was perfect, the hostels were nice, and the sites were pretty cool.

The city of LUOYANG is about 9 hours by train from Hefei. We took an overnight and Chelsea and I got top bunk sleepers. Best decision ever. Sleepers are a great way to travel. At the train station we got 2 cabs that ended up driving us in a circle and then ripping us off. Stupid. After a long nap we took the city bus to our first site: the LONGMEN CAVES. A bunch of Buddhas carved into rocks. Actually, according to my amazing China Insight Guide "there are over 1,300 grottoes, 700 niches, containing 40 pagodas, 2,780 inscriptions and more than 100,000 statues and images". They all date back to the 5th - 7th centuries. Cool beans.

The SHAOLIN temple was our next stop. We took a bus tour that left from our hostel. We thought it would be a good deal to do this, but we once again got ripped off and taken to a few uninteresting buildings/fields (with gross bathrooms) before we actually made it to the temple. Despite my resentment towards the tour guide I actually enjoyed Shaolin. We saw a short show given by some of the Kung Fu students. Then we acted like Kung Fu-ers posing and climbing on some poles. We looked ridiculous but enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. We walked to the pagoda forest and as we were walking back to the bus we were passed by swarms of students dressed in red and marching. "yi, er, san, si!"

After our trip to Shaolin we went to catch a train to Xi'an. It was an hour late and we didn't end up in Xi'an until 5 am. After that uncomfortable ride all we wanted to do was sleep, but when we arrived at the hostel we found out that they had given our rooms away. We were displaced about the hostel. Chelsea, Danielle, and I ended up in a honeymoon suite for about 2 hours before they woke us up and put us in our real room. After that little kerfuffle, we slept. And slept.

XI'AN is a neat city. The cab drivers are nicer than in Louyang and there are a lot of trees. However, there is an uncomfortable amount of white people and the air is thickly polluted. I took a deep breath at the train station and it was not pleasant. We spent one day in Xi'an trinket shopping, wandering the Muslim quarter, eating funny food, and exploring the popular sites (without paying any entrance fees of course). It was nice to take a break and wander around without any time constraints. Most of the girls bought gifts gallore! I had a fun time haggling but still have a hard time spending my precious yuan. Oooh well.

Our last site was the TERRACOTTA WARRIORS! We took the city bus about an hour to the warriors. AND I became Danielle for a while when I used her student ID to get the discount. Thanks Danielle! We saw all of the pits of warriors and looked around the museums. It was a nice place. The warriors though were a little underwhelming. I guess I had heard so much about them, how they were so incredible, that I was expecting a little more than 3 pits of carved statues. Don't get me wrong, still cool.

We took another overnight back to Hefei on which I slept a solid 8 hours. I keep thinking about how I must have been trained on my 13 hour car trips to Alberta every summer, and now I can sleep wherever. We arrived at the Hefei train station and once again it was raining, just like every other time we've arrived home.

So, a successful trip I'd say. I'm already looking forward to our next vacation in two weeks! Beijing here we come.