Xi'an

Time for another weekend trip! As this one was a little further afield, we clambered onto the coach after lessons on Friday, and headed to Dalian Airport, Xi'an -bound! Xi'an was about a 2 hour flight from Dalian - the equivalent of taking London tourists to Southern Spain for the weekend! But as I explained earlier, in terms of the whole of China, this was a relatively short trip.

 Terracotta Warriors

the largest pit discovered so far

the kneeling archer

Our first trip in Xi'an, was to see the Terracotta army. Even at such a massive tourist site we were still asked for photos, as most of the tourists were Chinese. The terracotta army has a fascinating history. It was built by Emporer Qin Shi Huang, who also unified the states of China and directed the building of much of the Great wall. He began to plan the terracotta army at a very young age. It consists of several 'pits' of these warriors surrounding a huge mound in which his tomb lays, surrounded my rivers of mercury. All this effort was believed to go with him into the afterlife, and trust me if this is true - he is definitely king! Previous rulers had been buried with small figurines but none with an entire life-sized army. My first thought on entering the first, and largest, pit was: this man was crazy. The army looks impressive today, but knowing each warrior is thought to have a unique face, and each was once brightly painted, is astounding. Although the story of the army was passed down in legend, it was actually discovered when some farmers were digging a well. Only one warrior, the kneeling archer, was found in one piece, and none had weapons as the pits had been raided and destroyed by the emperor's enemies.

Huaqing hot spring
Our next stop was the Huaqing hot spring, a palace and baths for emperor You and his concubines. After my initial disappointment that China did not quite look like the set of Mulan, here certainly did. Set impressively against a mountain, the main pool had a stage, that can rise out of the water so that shows could be put on for the emperor, and it's still used today. The whole place was very ornate, with pagoda-sty,e buildings and dragon statues everywhere. There were also tablets with Mao's poetry inscribed. There were a series of baths and at the end we could wash our hands in the spring water and rub a stone of jade for luck. We also learnt that in China, tinsel is not just for Christmas! The next day was Chinese valentine's day (Qixi festival) so the grounds were decorated accordingly. We also saw a man fishing the fish out of the lake, apparently just for couples to pay to release them again tomorrow!

That evening we went out for hotpot - a very popular type of meal in China. In this restaurant we were each given a pot of boiling water on a mini stove. The idea was then to add ingredients from the table into our pot, and make up our own sauce to go into our meal. Each person also had an egg to poach at the end, then made the remaining eggy water into soup! We went for a walk later to have a look around the city near to our hotel. We saw a fan dancing class just practicing in the middle of the street. Then we came across a park full of roller-skaters and decided to give it a go! Turns out I'm a massive wimp with no balance... to stop I had to keep skating into walls!