Xi'an and the Terracotta Warriors

你好，

It has been a very busy month here in 中国。Firstly, we had our first holiday. Out of the 22 scholars, 16 of us decided to go to Xian. Xian is the ancient capital of China and the start of the silk road so there is lots of sights and history to explore.

Our journey began with a nineteen hour train journey from 天津站 to 西安站. In order to save money we decided to book seats instead of beds. This is a decision I regret 100%, I barely got any sleep due to the approximately 120 people seated plus the people standing in the aisle making the carriage very loud, hot and smoky. Here is a photo of a Chinese train ticket. Train Ticket in Chinese is 火车票。Can you figure out my seat number?

Once we arrived in 西安, we set out to explore the many sights of 西安。After we had dropped our luggage at our hostel, we decided to cycle around the ancient city wall of 西安。It is regarded as the best preserved Chinese city walls and is also the longest and largest. As a result it has been recognised as a UNESCO world heritage site. It was built during the Ming dynasty. We cycled round the top of the very bumpy walls on some well used mountain bikes. The wall is about 14KM in total so not too long a ride. That evening I met with one of my Chinese friends and my old teacher from Scotland, Ric. He took some of my friends and I to a restaurant serving the delicacies of 西安. The meal was delicious and it was great to chat about our time in 中国 so far and look back on his time in 苏格兰。Can you remember the word for friend in Chinese?

The next day, we explored the drum and bell towers. These ancient structures mark the centre of the city and were used as a place to report the time and news to the people during ancient times.

The towers were built in 1384 during the Ming dynasty. The bell tower holds a variety of bells from the tang dynasty and the drum tower has many drums for many different events and seasons.

As you can see in the pictures, it is very busy. This is because we travelled during the national holiday and during golden week. Golden week is the busiest week in the year for travel in China. Everywhere was packed to the seams.

The following day of our trip we visited the Terracotta Warriors and went up Mount Li. The Terracotta warriors were built by the first emperor of what we know as China today. The warriors were built as his army for the afterlife. After seeing the warriors, we went up Mount Li on the cable cars. The view from the top was 漂亮。

Then after all our sightseeing was done it was time to return to 天津 on yet another 19 hour train.

This month I have been playing a lot of golf. Golf isn’t as popular in China as it is in Scotland although it is becoming increasingly popular. I have made some Chinese golf friends who live in 天津。It’s a great way to practice my golf and my Chinese at the same time。They are especially chatty once they hear I am from the home of golf. Golf in Chinese is 高尔夫球。Do you have any hobbies? Do you know how to say them in Chinese?

At the end of the month, in small groups we visited a Chinese family for dinner. It was a great opportunity to practice our Chinese and we learned to make dumplings. 我们吃很多饺子。 We also ate a lot of other really tasty food. While at the host family, we learned a new Chinese game called Go. The game has very simple rules but is very difficult. Afterwards we played Monopoly but sadly there was no winner as we had to go home.