Xian, china

China Tour - 1

We went to China on a group tour in the first fortnight of Sep.18. The tour was for 13 days and was called “The Best of China (Essential)”.  The booking was made through Webjet exclusives and the tour was conducted by Nexus tours.  It was a hectic tour made more hectic by the flight arrangements.  In the domestic flights our request for special meals, vegetarian, was not passed on.  In the international flights the booking was made in flights that involved clearing the baggage and re-booking at change over points where the problem was compounded by the communication difficulty as very few in the airport could understand English.  However the guides, local and national, were very helpful which made the tour enjoyable.

Our first halt was Xian, which is one of the oldest cities of China with about 3000 years of history and also one of the most popular tourist destinations in China.  We flew from Sydney to Xian with a stopover at Shanghai, where we had to clear our baggage and go through all formalities involved in rechecking.  As very few could communicate in English, it is with much difficulty we could catch the connecting flight completing all formalities.  In fact we just made it and the door closed after our entry.  One other pair of mother and son who were from New castle and who came by this flight missed the connecting flight and spent the night in Shanghai, and we learnt about it in Xian next morning. 

In the morning, after breakfast, we visited the Terracotta Warriors which forms part of Terracotta army that was constructed to accompany the tomb of China’s First Emperor,Qin, to serve and safeguard the emperor in his afterlife

.  Early rulers had soldiers, officials buried along with them after death to serve them in the afterlife.  To save the human sacrifice the terracotta army was created and buried with the emperor after death. These were made 2000 years earlier but were discovered only in 1974 and later.  It is considered to be one of the greatest archaeological discoveries and was named a world heritage site in 1987.  The figures vary in height according to their roles, with the tallest being the generals. Four main pits of approximately 23 feet deep have been discovered near the emperor’s tomb and together they contain more than 8000 soldiers and 150 cavalry horses.  The figures vary in height according to their rank, tallest being the generals. It is amazing to see row after row of life-size terracotta soldiers which are more than 2000 years old and it is a window to the ancient culture of China.

The next important landmark we visited was the Big wild goose Pagoda which was built in the 7^th century for the study of Buddhist scriptures that were brought from India by the Buddhist monk, Xuanzang.  It is a seven-story building which was built with layers of bricks without cement.  The statue of Xuanzang is there before the building.  This is is called Big wild goose pagoda because there is another small pagoda near city wall which is called small wild goose pagoda.  This is also a world heritage site.

Another important place of visit was the Ancient City Wall.  It is one of the oldest, largest and well-preserved city walls.  It was built in 14^th century.  It is rectangular in shape and is 14 kilometres long and encircles the old city with a moat, drawbridges, watch towers and gate towers.  A watch tower is located on each of the four corners of the wall.  We can see people cycling or walking along the wall.  Looking down the wall we can watch the city life. 

The hotel we stayed here, Tianyu Gloria grand Hotel, was well-located with a mall,  a family convenience store and the Wal-mart located in front of the hotel in the opposite row.  As all the people in the reception could understand English, this was the best hotel to my liking in the entire trip

Photos taken in Xian can be viewed in the Flickr album “Xian, China” @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/sam-sekar/albums/72157695687695640

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