December 11, 2008
We left for a nearly week-long trip. We left in the evening from the Beijing Train Station and took an overnight train to Xi’an. The Train Station was massive! I had one of the “I’m definitely in China” moments here. People everywhere!
December 12, 2008
We arrived at in Xi’an at about 8:00 am. I went to exchange my US currency, and then we went found a bus to take us to the Terra Cotta Warriors!! I wanted to see if they would give me a discount with my international student ID. They did!! And they took Danny’s UT student ID!! We went to see the 8th Wonder of the world and a “World Heritage Site” for about $10 US!! This made me even more excited! The warriors were Huge! I expected then to be life-size. They were even larger than life-size-especially by ancient Chinese standards!
We bought some miniature warriors from some guys that came by and sold them out of their jackets. They started out at 100 rmb- “Very cheap, Sir” We got one set for 10 and one for 20. As we were leaving, we saw that we could have bought them for 7. Danny was mad!
After we got back into the city of Xi’an and picked up our backpacks, we began our journey to the bus station. Lonely planet said that it was only a little ways “in that direction.” At least that is what we thought. We walked in the wrong direction for over an hour and ended up taking a taxi to the airport so that we wouldn’t miss the flight to Guilin. We BARELY made it to the airport in time! Check in for flights cuts off 30 minutes before the flight boarding begins. We got in line with a little more than 12 minutes left. But we made it!! Danny lost his knife in security L We got on the plane and the Chinese business men that were in our seats seemed a little put out that they had to move back to their seats and couldn’t talk to their friends. After we arrived in Guilin, we took a bus and a taxi to the hostle. The Taxi driver tried to pretend he didn’t know where we were staying so that he could charge more. Joe, the owner, was really nice! After he made a copy of the passports, we went to eat dinner at this wonderful little restaurant/food stand pretty close. It was delicious!! We ate snails, crawfish (not too many-they were really a pain), eggplant, green beans, oysters, broccoli, chicken, and beef! All were seasoned and grilled.