May 10th,
Friday
We had an early
start this morning, leaving our hotel around 6:30. From there we headed to the
train station and began our journey on the high speed train (200 mph) from
Shanghai to Xi'an. During our six hour journey, we got to see the various
landscapes throughout China. Once we got outside of the city, we got to
experience the beautiful Chinese countryside. There were countless small crop
farms with various crops ranging from rice to fruit trees. We passed several
ghost cities. The ghost cities are massive cities that were built for people to
move to as the population rate in China rises. As we got closer to Xi'an, there
were more mountains and trees. It was fascinating to see the variations in the
scenery throughout the trip. We learn on the bus ride to the wall that the
population of Xi'an grew by 2 million people within this last year!
After we arrived in
Xi'an, we went to the wall surrounding the inner city. We were able to rent
bikes and cycle around the 7.5 mile wall. While cycling, we were able to see
the beautiful old buildings that were inside the wall. There were old buildings
along the wall, some of which once held the general and leaders of the city. Everyone enjoyed getting a chance to enjoy
the warmer weather (80F and sunny!) while being active.
After the wall, we
got to experience the Shaanxi Grand Opera House after the 15 minute bus ride
from the wall. We were escorted to our table and was greeted by a delicious
cold dishes of beef, veggies, and pork before the dumplings. Xi'an is famous
for their dumplings and it sure showed tonight! We had the opportunity to try
20 dumplings to shrimp to cabbage to walnut dumplings. Once we were full with
dumplings, we were entertained by the wonderful performance of the Opera House.
We watch a ten act performance of beautiful music performed by the actors and elegant
dancing done by the dancers. It showed us the history of the Tang Dynasty
though the dancing and music.
It was a great way
to start out time in Xi’an, China’s original capital and a mainstay of the old
Silk Road.
Biking on the wall
Dancers
Dancers
Music
Winners
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