xi'an, day #1.

i have no recollection of what happened yesterday, since i was stuck on a train to xi’an in the afternoon.  john and i watched a dvd that we bought here and that is probably not a legal copy.  well, we almost watched the movie.  my computer ran out of battery with about twenty minutes left of the flick so we were left hanging.  i’m assuming that we will finish it sometime?

sidenote:  riding the train is awkward.  people stare at you a lot.  john felt especially awkward because we were playing super stick-man golf, and i get really angry when i lose, so imade him kiss me after each hole so that i wouldn’t get mad at him for beating me.  oh yes, people were staring.  i’m sure they thought we were nuts.

xi’an!  xi’an is definitely a tourist spot.  they charged us up the wazoo for anything and everything they could.  it costs money to go inside a temple if you are white.  honestly, i am annoyed.  so we ignored anyone who wanted our money and only listened to those people who had no way to benefit from the information they were giving us {aka our hostel reception desk}.  after getting to the hostel, we found the cheapest way to the terra cotta warriors {7 rmb, or about $1.11 u.s.} and got on the bus. 

once we got to the terra cotta warriors, we bought two student tickets.  then we walked about two miles to the entrance.  they wouldn’t accept our tickets, however, because we didn’t have my student i.d. so we had to walk all the way back to the ticket counter, buy regular tickets, and hike all the way back up to the entrance.  they also charged me 1 yuan to pee in their stinky, poopy bathroom.  {don’t even get me started on the bathroom habits of the Chinese}.  honestly, these people.

the warriors were well worth it!  there are about 8,000 uncovered terra-cotta figures that you can see, but there is a whole city that the emperor had built for himself in the afterlife.  in addition to each soldier having different clothing, hair, and features, they each had a perfectly-preserved weapon.  there were also chariots and terra-cotta horses buried, and many pits where live animals were buried {such as a real-live horse buried in an underground stable}.  over 100,000 workers died completing the project, and when he died, the emperor’s concubines and close loyal subjects were killed and buried with him.  seriously, this dude was crazy.  but he also unified china in about 200 b.c. so, you know, he’s also pretty cool.  

after seeing one of the top five sites we’ve seen so far on this trip, we got ripped off eating at some restaurant on our way out.  they had an English menu with jacked-up prices, specifically for tourists.  i talked them down a few dollars, but really, we were so hungry that we didn’t care.

on the way home, the bus driver decided to stop the bus and honk at anyone who looked remotely like they might need a ride.  then his partner in crime {some lady who gathered the money} would yell in chinese at them.  aka it took forever to get home.  {i think they wanted more passengers so they could get more money?}

does it sound like I hated xi’an?  because truthfully it is probably my least favorite city that we have visited in china.  but, I loved muslim street.

muslim street was a big food/shopping area in the middle of xi’an.  there are a lot of chinese muslims there, and that’s how it got its name.  they had yummy fried sweet-potato things, a beef quesadilla that was good, meat skewers, and something called “baked gluten”.  i liked everything but the baked gluten.  and i am seriously hankering for some raw vegetables, because my diet for the past seven weeks has consisted of meat and carbs with the occasional fruit.  this street was totally the kind of thing that john and i like to do at night, so i’m sure we will go back in the near future….

shanghai, day #3.

today we went to qibao.  it is a water city that was pretty much tourist-free.  here i saw my very first cooked mini-chicken, and it made me sad.  people eat the most disgusting stuff here.   

there were also lucky crickets in little cages being sold.  just like in mulan!  it was quite exciting for me to see.  they were super loud because every single one of them chirped constantly.  the lady selling crickets was also selling little baby turtles for only a buck each.  i thought how andy jack would love a turtle, but decided against it.  how would i feed and take care of it for another week in china anyway? and would my little friend even make it through u.s. customs? 

also, it would be really cool to live in a water city. 

shanghai, day #2.

today we took a trip to yuyuan gardens and they were so cool.  the buildings have traditional chinese pagoda roofs.  we also got xiaolongbao, “little dragon buns”, which we were told by some friends were the best in yuyuan.  they were right.  they were totally delicious.  we also got battered deep-fried crab, and john overheard someone say in chinese, “what? even foreigners are eating this?” and i still don’t really know what that means….

we also splurged on a dairy queen blizzard and two mango drinks while there.  and then hey tang later in the night.  i felt like such a fatty! 

plus we went to the shanghai technology museum, {but not the museum actually, but the underground market}.  it's actually called the "fake market" because it's full of copies.  we bought john a really nice "fake" watch....

and back to nanjing road at night, because we love it.

shanghai, day #1.

we made it to shanghai!  after a 22 hour train ride on hard upright seats, we finally made it to shanghai.  and boy, i love it here.  this is such a neat city.  and the food we have had to far has been awesome.  last night we went to get fried dumplings and walk around nanjing street, which is the “times square” of shanghai. 

i was also really excited to find hey tang with boba there, and clean bathrooms with actual real toilet paper and hand soap!

then we went to see the bund.  i just can’t get over how amazing it was!  this city has such a neat skyline.  one of the buildings has a full side that is a television.  the entire side facing the lookout point is a tv. 

then we got fried noodles and steamed dumplings on the way home.  it was such a great night for how short of a time we have been in shanghai.  

guilin.

we arrived safely in Guilin at about 6am, and we were immediately accosted by several travel agents telling us to buy tour packages or sleep in a certain hotel.  since we didn’t really have a set plan in place, we just went with it and ended up getting a surprisingly nice hotel room considering the cost {100 CNY or about $16}.  we also booked a tour through yangshuo and guilin to see the beautiful mountains and caves that are abundant in this area of china. 

one downside of the tour was that both on the way to and from our final destination we stopped several times to hear marketing pitches from local vendors.  one in particular liked to talk really loud and blew cigarette smoke in our faces.  not a big fan of that.  but we saw the karst mountains and the dragon caves, which were incredible.  when we finally got back to our hotel, we were too exhausted to go out {not to mention a little unsure of our surroundings and maybe a little scared?} so we just stayed in a watched a cheap dvd we bought off a street vendor.

p.s. – the shower had absolutely no hot water…so yeah. good thing china is so stinking hot, so it didn’t take much to warm back up.

p.p.s. - chinese people are so funny.  instead of keeping the caves looking natural, they decide to light it up with bright colorful lights.