The Heart of the Chicken

A Korean student that I taught in Japan (who was raised in China...how confusing...) told me that China looks like a chicken on a map, with its head facing east above Korea. My immediate thought about this observation was, "poor India".
As we've been travelling around the country I have now oriented myself based on this simile. So...we are now in the heart of the chicken - Xi'an.

We left Beijing last week on a night train, crammed into tiny bunks with our luggage. Our first impression of Xi'an was similar to our overall thoughts about China - filthy. As we wandered the streets to get our bearings we couldn't see the buildings a few blocks ahead and finished each day blowing black out of our nostrils. Unfortunately, this hasn't changed much since being here, but we have been able to take in sights more interesting than smog.

On the first day we set out wandering and stumbled upon the Muslim quarter of the city. We roamed through tiny side streets where people were bustling with activity; selling raw meat that was hanging out in the open, carting vegetables around on bicycles and bargaining with each other over other items. I really enjoyed seeing everyone doing what they do.

Other adventures have included visiting a couple of archaeological sites that were discovered in the 1990s and 70s. The first was the Tomb of Liu Qi, an emperor that ruled about 2000 years ago. Like all of the weirdos of the time, he felt the need to leave this world in the wake of some seriously strange preplanned burial rituals. So now we get to observe the unearthing of thousands of small terracotta figurines, farm animals and vases.
A similar burial place that is much more famous and slightly older is the tomb of Qin Xi Huang, IE "The Terracotta Warriors". Known as the first emperor, he apparently ruled with an iron fist and felt the need to build an army that would protect him in his final resting place. Rows and rows of these life-size terracotta soldiers have been dug up and reconstructed so that they now appear somewhat menacing.
(More info at http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/shaanxi/xian/)

While not overly exciting, it was extremely interesting to see what had been created so long ago come back to life. Makes you wonder what else is down there...

We're leaving Xi'an today for Chengdu, where we hope to eat a lot of Sichuan food and see many many pandas. We've recently added some pictures to our photo library - enjoy!