Xian

When we booked our flight from Beijing to Chengdu, we realised it was almost for free to get a stopover for 2 days to Xian on the way. Since we are planning on the go, we could not miss this opportunity to see the famous Terracotta warriors.

We arrived in the evening and we booked a tour straight away for the next day to see what Xian had to offer.

The city feels much happier that Beijing. There are no endless empty parks and enormous squares. The city is lit by night as if it is Christmas all year round. Also here they have done a better job promoting their history. The downside is that due to the Terracotta warriors craze they overcharge on any service they can get away with.

We did a 9-hour organised tour and visited not only the warriors but the Tomb of the Emperor (that the warriors were built for) and a famous hill where Chinese political parties got together to agree to fight the Japanese.

That day we had a lot of snow in the afternoon which gave us an even better view of the city. I am not sure if the pictures are doing any justice to Xian but we loved it and if we knew better we would have stayed another day or two.

Next day we are flying to Chengdu. The capital of the Sichuan province, the place where spicy food get a complete different meaning…