Xi'an in a minute

Had a whirlwind trip to Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi province. Usual story - arrived first thing in the morning after a restless night on the train and somehow found a way to my hostel, a really cool hostel looking out over the Xi'an bell tower at the intersection of the four main streets in the center of Xi'an. I hit my bed and about an hour later people in the room started stirring. I rose with them and heard talk of the Terracota Warriors, the main tourist draw in Xi'an. The Terracota Warriors are an army of about 7,000 larger-than-life clay armed soldiers and horses buried with emporer Qin around 200 BC when Xi'an was a pretty big deal, and vanity projects involved thousands of slaves instead of just buying a new boat. Some peasants found the warriors in 1976 when digging through their rice patties.

I asked one of my new roomates if they were going and he (Kevin) asked if I wanted to come along. After only an hour in Xi'an I'd already made a friend. Go me. I took a shower, ate a quick breakfast, and was off to the warriors with two Irishmen, a Polish Chicagon (who wanted me to invest in windpower in Montana with him after telling me about loosing all his money in the stockmarket which brought about a divorce - ahhh, thanks, but I'll pass for now), a couple Israelies, and Kevin, who turned out to be a somewhat normal American for once. The terracota warriors were neat to see, but aren't quite the huge army you expect. Many are in pieces or remain unexgevated, the lighting is terrible (I think to help preserve them) and you can't get very close, but it was still worth it. We returned to Xi'an, bypassing the Qin tomb (described as just a mound by our tour books), and set out to find a wan ba (internet cafe). The "Book of Lies" ( e.g. Lonely Planet or my Let's Go guide) misled us into a strange alley with no internet, but we did come out with a mysterious bottle of unknown liquor which will be factored in later in my story.

OK, it's later. So after dinner, which consisted of a small pack of instant noodles for yours truly, Kevin, and I and the two Irishmen drank the liquor, which tasted sweet like rice wine but packed a hell of a punch, and a bunch of beers while sharing international jokes and getting a heated account of Irish history and English atrocities. The Irishmen got a little riled up so I tried to steer the party towards the 1+1 nightclub, highly reccomended by the Book of Lies. We got there about 1 am and the music pounded away as the dance floor just got started. We orderd some Budweisers ('cause that's what Americans drink right?) and surveyed the crowd. One of the Irishmen got invited to a booth by a German girl, but she was studying engineering so after we all crashed the party we found 8 German guys and her. After we each took turns talking to the one girl we decided this wasn't going to work out. I was beckoned over by a local Chinese girl after learning she had ended up with one of my other new roomates the night before and was still wearing the same clothes...thanks but no thanks. Kevin and I went into a different booth where he started chatting it up with a local Xi'anite, and I played wingman as I fended off her male friends who insisted we were in their seats. Sometimes it helps to just smile and nod and pretend you don't know the language.

The next day was low key. I volunteered my plan of heading to Wu Dan Shan, one of the five sacred Chinese Peaks, then to Yi Chang to see the Three Gorges dam, then head up the Yangtze to Chong Ching. Kevin liked the plans and decided to come with (a decision he would later regret) for his last week in China so I got myself a traveling buddy. Later that evening we would head to the vibrant Muslim quarter for Thanksgiving dinner. He had Kung Pao Chicken and I had Beef with Sour Cabbage along with beer and delicious spicy bread. I later learned that my family went to a Chinese restaurant for thanksgiving in my honor, since we'd had our traditional meal before I left. A nice gesture from the fam, though something tells me my Chinese food was better. The next day I hit up the Bell Tower, great Mosque and skipped the free dumpling party at the hostel for a cramped sleeper bus to Shi Yan. That's when the real adventure started, but I'll have to give you the scoop on that later. I hope to get caught up later and will post some pictures of Xi'an, but for now I have to catch a train.