Our second stop was originally supposed to be Lhasa, but there were no direct flights to there from Shanghai so we had to stop somewhere in between. Seeing the list of possibilities, we decided that Xi'an was a good way to accomplish that. Though we only stayed overnight, this city had no troubles making a lasting impression. Hit the jump for a few thoughts and photos.
If you're wondering how to pronounce Xi'an, it sounds a lot like she-ahn. You'd laugh if you heard how I pronounced it before learning that, haha.
Sejin really enjoyed Xi'an. I think it's because it's not bursting and busy like Beijing and Shanghai, and you could get a bit closer to the personal interaction between people. I liked it because it was so gloomy and quiet. I think the following photos illustrate that.
This next photo is one of my favourite from this trip. It was a fluke that she was standing still in the middle of the street, with her head turned, and the headlights of the oncoming cars on both sides were lighting the street and her just perfectly. That moment came and passed quickly.
Xi'an is best known as the home of the Terracotta Army. I won't delve too much into the fascinating history as to why there was an army of sculptures buried underground, but I will share a few photos with you.
Definitely impressed with unimaginable size of this army, and that they are still discovering things to this day.
If you would like to see a few more photos from that (relatively) small city in the middle of China, please visit /photos/20100819_Xian/. The next city I'll be posting about is Lhasa, the highest capital in the world at 3600m above sea level. I'm not sure how I will cram all of what we saw in that city in one blog post, but I'll give it a try.
Thanks for visiting, and I hope you're having a very wonderful Christmas morning!
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