Xi'an in Pictures

Day 1 Xi'an
We flew into Xi'an from Shanghai in the morning and we were delayed by a few hours leaving Shanghai so when we finally got to Xi'an it was around 2pm.  It was a 2.5hour flight from Shanghai.  We decided to take a walk to the city wall because I had read we could rent bikes to bike the city wall. On our way to the wall we passed this restaurant worker taking a snooze.  We chuckled and took his picture!  

 Here is the city wall. The moat on the outside is under major construction… as is every city in China… so we had to go a few round about ways to get to the South Gate Entrance to the top of the wall.

 This is on the inside of the wall walking the edge.

 Sweet potatoes anyone?

 We rented a tandem bike to go around the wall.  Which was a great way to see the outskirts of the city.

 Those are a lot of snacks!  I have no clue what they are but he's going to go sell them somewhere!

 DAY 2:  Terracotta Warriors!   The warriors are about a 45 minute drive from the city out near Emperor Qin's mausoleum and burial place.  We hired a local guide named Liu(Leo) to show us around the 3 pits of warriors and to take us to lunch as well as show us the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, the Muslim Street and the Great Mosque.

It's pretty amazing to see all the soldiers and the detailed work that went into them.  They are constantly uncovering more areas of the pits and piecing them back together.
After seeing the 3 pits we headed to a local lunch spot of Liu's called 3, 6 noodles.  The owner says if you eat 3 noodles for lunch you are okay to eat dinner but if you eat 6 noodles for lunch then you don't need dinner.   We definitely didn't need dinner after these noodles and they were so delicious!  Probably one of the best meals we've eaten in China.

We then made a quick pit stop at the local Chinese Traditional Medicine market.  When a person would be ill and go to the traditional medicine hospital the doctor would prescribe a concoction of ingredients that one would boil together, strain and then drink the liquid.   As we walked up there was a lady sorting dried leaches.  Liu explained that the leaches and many other animals… snakes, lizards, seahorses would be used to rid the body of cancer.  So you'd boil them in water then drink the water.

The Big Wild Goose Pagoda is the symbol of the city as Liu told us.  When the monks were praying to Buddha for food a goose fell from the sky and so they didn't eat it but buried it and worshipped it as a sign from Buddha.

 The Muslim Street.  This area of town is like a big flea market almost, there are tons of food stalls and shops and all the people that own the shops are all Muslims.  We went to the Mosque here which is one of the only Mosques in China that has Chinese architecture vs Muslim architecture.