We'll call this our day of adventure. We left our hotel at 9AM after hiring a cab driver for the day. The hazy, orange sun was from the smog as workers returned to work from the Chinese New Year holiday. Visibility was only a couple of miles and it was an hour ride to the excavation site.
The terra cotta warriors were made for the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi, who took the throne at 13 years old. He unified China with wars in 246BC. Over 700,000 workers built this tomb and the warriors were built to protect him in his afterlife. They took 40 years to finish the warriors. He died in 210BC and the site was found by a farmer digging a well in 1974. The warriors have been preserved and they are an incredible site. Meg was subjected to her 2nd taste of Chinese bartering as we left. You literally have to walk a gauntlet of bothersome people hawking EVERYTHING, and within 50 feet, she had a headache. Billy and Jingyi managed to purchase a box of 5 terra cotta characters for Y5. The person had started at Y50. Y5 is 70c! we now call them the 5 quai guys. Quai is another word for a chinese yuan or money. Then Meg wanted a t-shirt and she found one that the girl wanted Y120 ($14). She finally caved in for Y50 ($6) after we threatened to walk away without buying. The trick is to walk away and they finally give in. There's an art to the dickering and Billy has it down cold! We then went on to the Huaqing Pool area which was a palace built around hot springs that another emperor used with his concubines (I guess like an ancient hot tub!). The hot springs are still there and pools have been preserved thru the centuries and it was very interesting. The white statue photo was taken there.
After lunch in Xian, the driver dropped us off at the airport and we flew to Shanghai, arriving at the monstrous Pudong Airport about 8:45Pm. Afer getting our luggage, we raced to the Maglev Bullet train from the sirport, a magnetic train that is one of the fastest trains in the world. We reached 301 km/h which was 187 miles per hour. It was incredible. We then transfered to the Shanghai subway system and, 8 stops later, found ourselves at the New Westlake Club Hotel about 10:30PM. Tomorrow we explore Shanghai. The 4 of us are shown here in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency hotel before we left to fly to Shanghai.
The terra cotta warriors were made for the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi, who took the throne at 13 years old. He unified China with wars in 246BC. Over 700,000 workers built this tomb and the warriors were built to protect him in his afterlife. They took 40 years to finish the warriors. He died in 210BC and the site was found by a farmer digging a well in 1974. The warriors have been preserved and they are an incredible site. Meg was subjected to her 2nd taste of Chinese bartering as we left. You literally have to walk a gauntlet of bothersome people hawking EVERYTHING, and within 50 feet, she had a headache. Billy and Jingyi managed to purchase a box of 5 terra cotta characters for Y5. The person had started at Y50. Y5 is 70c! we now call them the 5 quai guys. Quai is another word for a chinese yuan or money. Then Meg wanted a t-shirt and she found one that the girl wanted Y120 ($14). She finally caved in for Y50 ($6) after we threatened to walk away without buying. The trick is to walk away and they finally give in. There's an art to the dickering and Billy has it down cold! We then went on to the Huaqing Pool area which was a palace built around hot springs that another emperor used with his concubines (I guess like an ancient hot tub!). The hot springs are still there and pools have been preserved thru the centuries and it was very interesting. The white statue photo was taken there.
After lunch in Xian, the driver dropped us off at the airport and we flew to Shanghai, arriving at the monstrous Pudong Airport about 8:45Pm. Afer getting our luggage, we raced to the Maglev Bullet train from the sirport, a magnetic train that is one of the fastest trains in the world. We reached 301 km/h which was 187 miles per hour. It was incredible. We then transfered to the Shanghai subway system and, 8 stops later, found ourselves at the New Westlake Club Hotel about 10:30PM. Tomorrow we explore Shanghai. The 4 of us are shown here in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency hotel before we left to fly to Shanghai.
1 comment:
5 kuai guys!
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