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ni hao! (hello in chinese)
so the night train to xi'an was awful. it was dirty and smokey and had no air conditioning so the windows were left wide open - everytime a train went past and honked its horn i jumped out my skin! needless to say it was a fairly sleepless night. in the morning one of the boys from the tour woke up with a black face from all the coal dust that had blown in the window! haha.
after arriving in xi'an we had a very busy day. first we went straight to the terracotta warriors. it was amazing to see them and how huge and detailed they are. after that we went to a silk factory to see how silk is made, i now feel a little bad for the poor silk worms :( we then went to a traditional medicine market where there were many weird and wonderful things! there were antlers, squished turtle shells, squished hedghog skins, seahorses, lizards turned into backscratchers (scariest thing ever - ill bring them back as gifts! haha) and dead snakes that they boil into a drink. dont ask me what these things are meant to do for your health as i have no idea how they could help! outwith that there were millions of different herbs and spices, we saw little children about 3 years old helping their mums sell things. so cute. the same day we went to the muslim area of xi'an which was really lively and colourful and full of interesting people and food. we went to the great mosque there which was interesting comparing it to the buddhist temples we have been to. at night we all gave into a mcdonalds (it tasted so good!) and then went for a walk around the area where we found this lady and a child in the street playing with a weird bug that makes a noise that i can only describe as the sound of the needle for tattooing! they keep them as pets, i was the only one who seemed to be scared ...
on sunday we boarded yet another night train to chengdu that took 16 hours! it was a long journey but passed quite quick as the train was nice and clean with air conditioning so i passed out fairly early! on monday we arrived at 5.30am and went straight to a panda sanctuary where we saw lots of pandas, baby pandas and one newborn only 2 weeks old! they were adorable and so funny to watch. the grown ups just sit around eating bamboo and sleeping, and the babies waddle around really clumsily, playing just like children. they are so round, even their ears are round! we also saw red pandas, i didnt believe they were pandas as they had big long tails and looked like foxes.
after the panda sanctuary i have very shocking news - i went to a sichuan cooking class! and yes i cooked food that turned out very good and did not cause food poisoning! the old grandma that helped run the class couldnt speak any english but she was laughing at my chopping skills and the confused look that was always on my face! was ace fun, making lots of spicy dishes. eating them was more fun though. so maybe now i will be able to cook on my return. i like chengdu, its a sunny place with cool people and clean air :)
today we went to the leshan giant buddha which is the biggest one in the world. it is 71 meters high and is carved into a mountain. we took a boat ride down to it (choosing not to hike there!) and it was absolutly stunning. afterwards the bus driver we had today took us to his dads house to see how real chinese people live. we saw rice fields, lotus flowers, and got to eat plums, peanuts and seeds straight from their garden. the countryside in china is beautiful, this is the first time iv seen it and it really is lovely. such a contrast from the cities.
im learning a lot about the people here too, and how they dont know about a lot of things going on in the world and whats happened in history as their government blocks the news of it. our tour guide knew nothing about the vietnam war, about tibet riots, about the flooding that happened in the south just a couple of weeks ago to name a few. china is much more developed than i thought though, it seems to be booming and there is lots of construction going on. you sometimes wouldnt think you are in asia. theres a lot of wealth here too.
tomorrow i get to go on another night train and then a 10 hour bus straight after to a place called lijiang. away to stock up with lots of food for the journey :)
zai jian (goodbye in chinese) i have an ever growing chinese vocabulary!
xxx
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