3D/2N 西安，华山，秦俑 （2008/12/28-30）

Day 1 (12/28)

Reached 咸阳 Airport after 4.30pm. This tour only me, Amanda, a young lady tour guide and a driver.

We quickly proceed to the 大唐芙蓉园. The park was rebuild based on Tang dynasty period. Although it is a replica, but quite well done and beautiful.

After that we proceed to the famous Square where people likes to fly kite and walk walk. I did not take many pictures as the camera have ran out of Battery due the excessive used of flash. There are a lot of Bronze Sculpture of famous people of the Tang and Qin Era in the square, each with some explanation on those people.

After checking in to the hotel, we walked along 东大街，西安 City busiest street with shopping complexes and restaurants. We tried the famous 羊肉泡馍. I like the mutton which is really soft and tender. But the 馍 which you can see in the picture a round piece made of flour. We need to tear it into many tiny pieces in order for the mutton soup to sip into them. The 小菜 I love very much. Cucumber, ground nuts, sweetened garlic.

After dinner, we stroll along the street. We come to the famous Bell Tower, but unfortunately was closed for the day. We come to the street where 回族 people commence their business. They sell halal Beef /Mutton Kebab and Satay. Really looked delicious, but we are afraid to try due to our hard schedule the next day, climbing 华山. Must not upset our tummy.

Day 2(12/29) 华山

After 2 hours drive from 西安, we reached the base of 华山. We had a light lunch and prepare for the climb. We took a cable car from the base station till the North Peak, from there we climbed up to the other peak. The Snow from the previous night was still there, and it was very cold, about -5 to -8 degrees. The climb was quite tiring, especially in the winter. The steps are slippery due to ice and snow. We only managed to conquer the North, Middle and East Peak, due to time constrain, we could not go up to the South and West Peak. If we have an extra hour, we should have gone to all the peaks. A little bit of regret but over all we enjoyed the climb very much. Just the both of us. I did felt icy around my toes when I stopped to rest, seems like the sweat of my feet has frozen.

We reached the base again around 5pm, and headed straight to the hotel for a well deserved rest.



Day3 (12/30)
We headed to 临潼 early in the morning. 1st stop was the famous 华清池. This is the winter palace of 唐玄宗 and 杨贵妃. It is equipped with hot spring bath house. There is also a replica White Jade carving of Madam Yang naked getting out of the hot spring pool. Really a piece of art. The dried up pool was used by 杨贵妃.

Next stop is the underground tomb of Emperor Qin. It is a replica from the description of 史记. The real Tomb is just few kilometers away. The Chinese Archeology team still not confident of excavating the tomb as there are high content of mercury and not confident enough to preserve the artifact from oxidization. It was prohibited to take photographs inside the tomb, but I still see flashes though.
Last stop before we head for Airport is the 秦王兵马俑博物馆. One of my dream spot which I must come at least once in a life time. As a collector of toys, I see that Emperor Qin also like designer toys, in the form of Bronze Sculpture or Assembly and maybe other artifacts that still hidden in his tomb. The 2 Bronze Horse chariot was amazingly done with precise mechanical parts. There is also a Bronze Sword with Chromium coating that makes the edge very strong and sharp. This technology was only discovered by the Germans not more than 200 years ago. Wow... our Chinese ancestors might have lived in an era which is much more advance than we expect.


Too bad the 陕西博物馆 was still closed for refurbish. The newspaper said that they will be re-open by the end of December, but the information is not to be trusted. Or else I could have saw the Green Faced Terracotta Warrior and other 国宝级 artifacts which is kept in the museum.

We enjoyed the trip very much. I was thinking of going to Beijing next, hopefully before the 2008 Olympics.