Sunday, May 12, 2019



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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