May 11
After eating breakfast on our
last day in Guangzhou, we boarded the bus for a 45 minute ride to the
airport. We flew China Southern
Airlines. It was a different experience
going through Chinese airport security.
The process was less strict and all batteries had to be in a carry-on
bag. When it was time to board the
plane, we boarded a bus that drove about 2.5 miles and we boarded the plane by
stairs. You wouldn't want to be late for
your flight! The flight to Xi'an was
around 2 hours and had endless mountain views.
After we were all loaded on the bus, our tour guide Maggie told us many
history facts. Xi'an means "West
Peace" and was the capital city for Hang dynasty. It was chosen because it was the perfect "feng sheu" spot. The northern part of the city is farmland,
southern region is education based, eastern region is factories, and the
western region is for foreign companies.
Main crops found here are corn, wheat, pomegranate, kiwi, apples, and
watermelon. Rice is not found here
because the region is too dry. The
Buddhist temple was the first stop of our city tour. We saw a large tower called the "small
pagoda" within the temple. It was
54 meters high, is 1,300 years old, and had 13 stories. An earthquake created a major crack down the
pagoda. It was believed that an
additional earthquake fixed the crack.
Then we learned what different Chinese characters mean and different
ways to draw them. We learned that they
read right to left and not left to right like we do. Next stop of the city tour was the Xi'an City
Wall. It was 8.6 miles around and had 4
main gates but an additional 9 gates were added as the city grew. Many people had a great time riding bikes all
the way around the wall! A dumpling
dinner and dance show rounded out the first night in Xi'an. We tasted 13 different dumplings ranging from
pork to pickles. Some had very
interesting names like "monkey face", "goldfish dumpling",
and "sesame duck". These also
were shaped after the animal they were named after. The dance show had many traditional dances
from the Tang Dynasty. Both men and
women danced and there were two traditional instrument solos. Grace and flowing charm were easily seen in
these traditional dances. All dances had
many meanings, acrobatic moves, and elegant outfits. Even with a long day of touring we are
enjoying the warm weather without the humidity found in Southern China. Our great first day in Xi'an was filled with
history, dumplings, and dancing!
Chinese writing
Dumpling dinner
New friends
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