Elizabeth goes to Xi'an 西安

This was the only solider they found in one piece .  He's called the kneeling archer.

This carriage is half life size. 
It protects the carriage behind it which is supposed to be for the Emperor's soul to be carried in.

The over-priced gift shop. 

No they didn't let us get that close but for 10 yuan you can take a picture that looks like you are.

These are Shi Zi Bing (Deep fried persimmon).
Liz liked them so much she had to go back for another.

This was the street with all the yummy local specialty food.

This is either the Drum Tower or the Tower next to it.

A Pagoda lit up at night

 

Sam's youngest sister, Elizabeth, is here visiting us for almost the entire month of February.  She's experienced the endless fireworks that accompany the new year here and of course has eaten lots of Chinese food.  But I thought it would be fun for us all to visit another city so I gave her the choice of either Qing Dao or Xi'an.  She chose Xi'an, so we packed our bags and got ready to see the Terra Cotta Warriors.  Although the overnight train wasn't as clean as Liz had hoped, I thought she did pretty well with adapting. She also made good use of her hand sanitizer.  Xi'an was a nice change of scenery and it has lots of Chinese history which I found very interesting.  You could say the highlight was seeing the Terra Cotta Warriors but I almost had just as much fun walking through the streets and eating the local food.  We stayed at a youth hostel close to the train station and ended up making some new Chinese friends that helped us see the sights on the cheap.  (Always a good idea when traveling to go with other Chinese and not get swept in by a "tour package")  Although I have wanted to do this trip ever since we first moved here I now am actually happy to have waited a little longer.  The reason is that after almost two years here my Chinese has finally improved to the point where now I can have a conversation with the locals and not always be looking for the english speakers.  That definitely makes travel less stressful and more enjoyable.  I think Sam felt the same way.  Enjoy the pictures!

Words to remember:

Xī’ān(西安)= Xi'an

bīng­mǎ­yǒng (兵马俑)=Terra Cotta Warriors