Xi'an

We landed in Xi'an airport at midnight. We were tired so we took a taxi and went straight to our hostel. It was called 7 Sages Youth Hostel. After freshening up I slept at about 3am only to be up again by 6am. We went to the bus statiom nearby and took bus no. 5 (306) at around 8am to see the Terracotta warriors.

So this is sort of an mausoleum consisting of 3 archeological pits founded in 1974 and their excavation is still in progress. These statues are life sized and are very detailed. Of course, alot of them were already damaged when they were found. To me, it seems like an ancient king wanted to make a time capsule, and he had too much time and money on his hands. Still amazing nevertheless.

After that we headed to the Muslim Culture Street. So much food here we just couldn't stop eating. The pomegranate juice was to die for. It is pomegranate season right now, so they're everywhere. We had some Osmanthus cake and beef and shrimp dumplings as well as some frozen yoghurt, and lastly smoked squid.

As we continued walking, we stumbled upon a souvenir shop alley. Tshirts, key chains and magnets, but what I liked the most was the artwork. Planning to get that when I come back to Xi'an towards the end of the trip.

Then we came across the Great Mosque of Xi'an. Beautiful courtyard and intricate architecture. This place was built on 742AD during the Tang dynasty making it 1300 years old.

After that we headed back to our hostel, made our way to Xi'an North train station via the metro and subsequently boarded a train to Lanzhou West. The journey took us 3 hours so we reached at 11.30pm and then got lost in finding our hostel so we finally reached at midnight again.

Had to be up by 6am as our train to Zhangye West was at 7.20am. We couldn't get a direct train from Xi'an to Zhangye so we had to break it up for bit. On the bright side, I got a bed to sleep on.Read more