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Yes, finally in Xian! Since we don't have much time in this city, we have to use our time to the fullest. Upon arrival at the hotel Christopher and I therefore set out to view the Drum and Bell towes. On our way we where witness of the daily morning gymnastics of several companies. This was very interesting to see, and it was clear that some employees would have rather stayed a bit longer in their bed than others...
Fuerthermore we saw people practising Tai-Chi, dancing etc. in local parks. Interesting!
Finally arrived at the towers we set out to see everything in as little time as possible. The towers were used to indicate the time (or actually the part of the day). The bell was ringed during the day, while the drum was beat during the night. Different melodies and instruments had a different message. We had a good timing, since we could attend the performances in the drum and bell tower before we had to go back to our hotel to take a quick shower and leave for the Xi'an terracotta army museum, which is actually situated an hours' drive from the city.
The terracotta army is pretty impressive, especially if you realize that only a very small part of this underground city has been excavated. This is done to protect the statues, as they are originally painted. In the presence of light this colour fades rapidly, so scientists are currently trying to figure out how to preserve the colours.
Another thing that I wasn't aware of is that fact that all statues were destroyed, and therefore the warriors on exposition are actually pieced together by archeologists. There has only been found one statue that was still in one piece! All in all it was a very interesting and impressive visit!
This evening we went to the "Tang dynasty show", a very nice show consisting of traditional dances. Before the show started we had a nice dumpling dinner in the theatre, with live traditional music (on a Chinese harp).
After the show, we set out to view the Bell-tower by night and visited the night-market in the Muslim area of the town. What I found to be very cool were the guys selling crickets, as their sound is considered to be relaxing. When there are hundreds of them together they are however very loud!
Unfortunately we couldn't see the great Mosque, but decided that we could probably see it tomorrow.
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