China - The Land of the Rising Sun

During our trip in Xian we found out that Xian was the capital for 13 dynasties in ancient China and in that time it was called Chang An meaning “Perpetual Peace". Also Xian is the eastern terminus for the Silk Road which we found was interesting.

We went to cool museum in Xian called the Museum of Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses. (1) There were 8,099 of these figures which are all part of the Terracotta Army. They say that the army was buried with the emperor of Qin in 210-209 BC and was discovered by local farmers in March 1974, who were drilling a water well east of Mount Lishan.(2)

Terracotta Warriors
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Terracotta_Army_Pit_1_-_2.jpg

Unfortunately we didn’t bring our video camera with us to show it to you guys personally. So I found two videos of the Terracotta Army which would give you guys back home an insight of what we saw during that time. I hope you enjoy it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFierlBrHPg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0hlh3K8bt4

We were very hungry for some seafood decided to eat the street food offered by the locals. The street food was pretty good, although one plate that we ate during that time didn’t taste like the others, but overall it was good!

Xian street vendor
http://www.thetransitcafe.com/site/photo/hanoi%20eatery.jpg

After that long day, we decided to hit the hay for the night in Xian at the Shangri-La Golden Flower Hotel. While we were heading to the hotel with our taxi, we all got cramps which I think came from the seafood that we ate on the streets. Then when we got to our hotel, the awe that it gave us made our cramps go away, our jaws literally dropped when we saw that hotel! Anyways, tomorrow we’ll be going down to the Yangtze River where our adventure continues!