I went to Xi'an the next day and the plane was delayed because of the frosty roads. Xi'an is one of the must-go list in China because I wanted to see the Terra Cotta Warriors at least once in my life so this 4 day holiday presented itself perfectly.
I stayed in a hostel which was quite nice and cosy (except for the part when one Korean stranger told me to beware of bad guys in China and he is a bad guy after I gave him my namcard 0.0 and I was so afraid he was gonna kidnap me or something) and the staff were very helpful. No plans beforehand, I went out with an Irish lady I met on the first day, Terra Cotta warriors on the second day, climbed Hua Shan on the third day and visited the Shaanxi Museum on the forth before returning to Shanghai.
It was a nice cultural town, very touristy but very convenient because most of the economy depends on tourism. The government actually does a really good job taking care of tourist in Xi'an e.g. airport express buses, cheap official safe transport to attractions etc. Winter is the off-peak season so tickets were off-peak prices, saved me a lot of money.
One of the famous mutton dishes. Its all halal in Xi'an!
The City Wall
Big Goose Pagoda
The Halal Food Street
Its like attending a small China history lesson, learning about the Qin dynasty. The Terra Cotta pits that were exhibited were actually only small part of the guard post for Qinshihuang's tomb and the rest of the tomb is actually still intact, underground which is many times bigger than the pits we seen.
They said of mercury river which symbolises the seas and oceans and mechanical traps that protects the tomb. The tomb has actually very good feng shui, mountains and rivers, jade and gold (mining in the mountains), that's why he chose that place. There is also clay musicians, a zoo, acrobats, the other palace officials etc buried with him.
The famous kneeling archer
Pit no. 1
Yeah its crazy huge
So I went mountain climbing on the first day of the year
This part is crazy steep. You can't even see the bottom. I had to climb like climbing a ladder.
They named this Gold Monster but i think its really exquisite
Overall it was a really educational trip! One tick off my must-go list!