Took bus 26 to the Shaanxi provincial museum.

The museum is one of the top museum in China. It has 300,000 objects with 8 floors. But only 3 floors are open to the public.

Introduction of Shaanxi province…

It’s separated into a few sections. One section is about the Neolithic period because the 6500 years old Banpo Neolithic village was discovered close to the city.
This vase is around 5000-8000 years old.

PreZhou area, where Xia and Shang dynasty was in power. (2100-1050BC).
Old Chinese characters inside the Ding, 3000-4000 years old.

Zhou Dynasty, the longest dynasty in China with 1000 years in power. (1000BC-250BC). During the Zhou Dynasty, Chinese philosophy developed and people like Confucius, Laozi and Mencius made a big impact to later generations.

Warring states period 475BC-221BC where there are a lot of wars going on before being united by Emperor QinShiHuang.

During Qin dynasty 221BC-206BC, QinShiHuang standardized currency

and measurement.

Every terracotta warrior has a different look.

During Han 200BC-220AD, China developed pretty well.
ZhangQian,

he was sent to explore the west and is the founder of silk road.

Short story about ZhanQian, he is credited as the person that opened up the silk road.

There were many wars and life was tough around 300 AD. I guess that’s why Buddhism started to become more popular then because people turned to Buddhism for consolation and peace.

During Tang dynasty (618AD-907AD), chubby woman is favored.

Tang beauties.

Took bus 521 to Xiaoyanta. Didn’t go in since it’s just another pagoda.

Lamb noodles for lunch (8 Yuan~USD$1.2).

Took bus 600 to Xian Economic and technology development district north of the city center.

Got on the train K242 at 7.31pm towards Wuhan (242 Yuan~USD$35, hard sleeping berth).

Took bus 306 from the train station to some of the tourist attraction in LinTong which is an hour away from Xian. First stop is to HuaQingChi (6 Yuan).

The place was once a favored place of holiday for emperors in Tang dynasty. Since it’s just another old residence, I decided not to go in.

Again took bus 306 to the site of Terracotta Warriors, BinMaYong.
Kneeling archer

The site was accidently discovered in 1974 by peasants digging well. QinShiHuang became emperor when he was just 13 and under his rule of just 36 years, he achieved much more than anyone else. He conquered 6 kingdoms in just 13 years, standardized measurements, currency and writings.

There are 3 pits storing the old artifacts and statue.
Pit 3

Pit 2

The first pit is the biggest one and has 6000 statues in it.

With Oscar and Ilenia, my dorm mates.

Bus 306 broke down on the way back,

Took bus 602 to Xian Jiao Tong university. Xian Jiao Tong university is pretty good for its engineering faculty.

Went to the train station to get a ticket to Wuhan for tomorrow. Today is the first day where passengers can buy the Zhengzhou-Xian bullet train. The train will start running on Feb 6th. Just few weeks ago the bullet train from Wuhan to Guangzhou was put into operation.
China has an amazing plan to build 13,000 km of high speed rail road. The country is going to spend one trillion USD to expand its railway network from 78,000 km to 110,000 km in 2012.

Article about High Speed rail in China.

China High Speed Railway Map

High speed railway Plan

The four north-south main lines:
1. Beijing – Shanghai 350 km/h
2. Beijing – Guangzhou – Hong Kong 350 km/h
3. Shanghai – Hangzhou – Shenzhen
4. Beijing – Shengyang – Harbin (branch Shengyang – Dalian) 350 km/h
The four east-west main lines:
5. Qingdao – Jinan – Shijiazhuang – Taiyuan 250 km/h
6. Xuzhou – Zhengzhou – Xian – Lanzhou 350 km/h
7. Shanghai – Nanjing -Wuhan – Chongqing – Chengdu 200 – 350 km/h
8. Shanghai – Hangzhou – Changsha – Kunming 350 km/h

Train ticket (around 55 Yuan) is much cheaper than the bus ticket (90 Yuan) to Xian. Was trying to take the 7.12am train to Xian but got an 8am train (K59 from XuZhou) instead and the train was delayed for another 1.30 hours.

Arrived at Xian train station at almost 3pm.

Xian train station was pretty crowded. Met a young man, Du on the train and dragged him along to the hostel since he has never heard about youth hostel. Took bus 603 to NanMen and found a youth hostel called XiangZiMen. Originally I was planning to stay at ShuYuan hostel but I lost the address and found XiangZiMen hostel instead.

XiangZiMen hostel (30 Yuan~USD$4.5 for a 6 beds dorm room)

Shaanxi has a very long and interesting history. It’s considered the heart of Chinese civilization, Xian is the capital for Shaanxi province and is one of the oldest Chinese city, more than 3000 years old. The city has been the capital of some of the very old dynasties. Xi’an became a cultural and political center of China in 1100 BC with the founding of the Zhou Dynasty. During the Sui dynasty, Xian was the largest city in the world with a wall enclosing the city of 84 km^2. But during the end of Tang dynasty, Xian was destroyed.
A wall around the city was constructed during the Ming dynasty in 1370 with 12km long, 12meters high and 15-18 meters thick, the wall still remain intact today.

Today, Xian has a population of around 8 millions.

NanMen (South Gate)

GuLou (Drum Tower)

It’s a crowded day in Xian.

Walked back to the train station. Passed by GeMinGongYuan.

Older generation dancing hip hop

Arranged marriages are still popular in China and many old people gather here to exchange information about the availability of their sons and daughters.

Advertisement about looking for a partner

Took bus 5 to DaYanTa. The pagoda was constructed in 652 AD to store the Buddhist sutras obtained by Xuan Zang from India. The pagoda has a height of 64 meters.

South of DaYanTa is BuYeCheng.
Mr. Du was pretty photogenic and loved posing for photos.

Restroom in the art museum.

Walked to TangFuRongYuan, a recent built park with buildings similar to Tang structures in ancient times.

Took bus 26 to GuLou and went to HuiMinJie for food.

Kite flying

Dinner, fried rice with meat on sticks and a drink. (10 Yuan~USD$1.4)

Finally got back to the hostel around 11pm after walking around for 8 hours today.