"Xi'an" Xian Shan by Oda_

As a part om my 1 month long stay in China me and my class visited Xi'an mainly to see the terracotta soldiers. We went by an overnight train from Beijing, a journey of aprox. 14 hours. Not so boring as it sounds. The train is a great place for people watching!

Xi'an, meaning western peace, was once the capital of China for 13 dynasties. The main attraction is the site of the terracotta soldiers dating back to the Qin dynasty ( from which China got its name ) about 200 BC, remaining undiscovered untill 1974! More than 8000 realsized uniqely shaped soldiers has been discovered at the time of writing. You have to see it to believe it!

Xi'an also has other atrractions like the drum tower and the city wall. About 4 million people live in the city area and Xi'an is not a small town to my standards (Norway has a total population of 4,6 million people....). But the athmosphere is more layed back than in Beijing. Quiet markets to big shopping malls, Xi'an has it all.

Happy New Year

We stayed in Xi'an during the last night of the Chinese New Year. To scare away evil spirits the Chinese fire up fireworks and firecrackers. In Norway, the display of the fireworks is the main attraction. The Chinese, in comparison, seemed to love the sound of them.. The bigger the bang, the better. It felt like a warzone..