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After an extremely grim train journey from Shanghai to Xi'an, we were unsure as to whether we could forgive China enough to be able to enjoy another city! Xi'an completely won us over though! Unlike Shanghai and Beijing, Xi'an, although one of China's largest cities, has retained much more of the older Chinese culture, presenting itself as a eclectic mix of old and new.
First of all, we must mention the train journey. It was around 15 hours on what is known as the 'hard-sleeper' and as first time Chinese train travellers, we hadn't requested a bed preference so we were allocated middle bunks! The beds themselves were part of 6-bed cabins with bunk beds 3 stories high which were really cramped and there was no space for our bags. This resulted in us having to lie in bed for the 15 hours (as sitting up was impossible) spooning our rucksacks until we arrived in Xi'an! I would not want to repeat that experience in a hurry!
The centre of Xi'an is much like any other city with shopping malls, plentiful McDonalds and KFCs but, unlike most cities, is surrounded by a huge city wall which was build over 600 years ago. All the way around the city wall are shrines of typical chinese architecture and towers. On the first day Craig and I hired bikes and cycled the total 14km on the wall all the way round. It was an amazing experience and gave you an awesome view of the city sights and of the crazy Chinese traffic!
Most people come to Xi'an to arguably the eighth wonder of the world, the Army of Terracotta Warriors, so we booked a tour through our hostel and headed there on our second day in Xi'an. It was a fascinating sight and hard to imagine that such a huge historic find was simply stumbled upon by an unknowing farmer! If you are travelling in China on limited time, this is a definite for any traveller visit and gain an insight into ancient Chinese history.
Worth a visit during the day are the Bell and Drum Tower which sit opposite the South Gate of the City Wall. Musical performances within each tower are provided intermittently through the day which can be fun and are a chance to see the peculiar, popular chinese instruments such as the sitar and the erhu! It's also lovely to take a wander through the Muslim Quarter by day or by night and see the contrast of the people with the Buddhist culture and to taste an array of weird and wonderful dishes from the food stalls!
At night, we made our way up to the beautiful sight of the Big, Wild Goose Pagoda which is a completely pedestrianised area and really lovely to walk around both by day and by night. The highlight at night is the fountain performance which occurs around 8pm and is a wonderful mix of music, lights and fountains and we found really spectacular!
A further highlight after the small convenience stores which we'd only been able to find in China so far, was the huge Wal-Mart situated near the South Gate! Great for cheaply stocking up on essentials!
We really enjoyed Xi'an and the time we had there was just enough to see everything that we wanted to see. This city is well worth a visit for those wanting to see how the culture of old and new China exists side by side.
Craig and Nikki
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