The day after the Forbidden City, I headed to the Summer Palace. This is the palace complex that use to be the residence of the Chinese Emporers during the intense heat of the Chinese summer. It is located a few miles outside of Beijing and although it took me a good while to find it (I took the publiuc bus which was interesting to say the least,) it was WELL worth it. It is basically a comples of pld residence halls, banquet halls, and temples that are set around a massive lake. All of the buildings have been restored and are beautiful and have very vibrant colors and decorations. I have to say however, that my favorite part of the whole complex was a temple that was located on the top of a hill at the center of the complex. Upon arriving at the peak of the hill, the view was unreal. I was able to see pretty much ALL of Beijing and the surrounding area. That says a lot because Beijing is HUGE.
After I returned to my hostel from the Palace, I met upo with a kid named Menno from Holland. He was staying in the same dorm room as I was and we decided to go and check out the Olympic Village complex. The village was absolutly amazing and both the National Stadium a.k.a The Bird’s Nest and the Swimming Complex a.k.a The Water Cube are amazing works of architecture. That being said, another amazing building is a 7 (yes you read correctly SEVEN) star hotel that is also on the grounds. We didn't go inside the hotel, but I am sure you can all imagine how amazing it must be. After the complex, it was time to head back to the hotel and go to bed before my EARLY flight to the city of Xi’An to see the “8th wonder of the world,” The famous Terra Cotta Warriors.
Uppon arriving in Xi'An, I took out my trusty map, and after some navigation, found my way to my hostel. This hostel was amazing and had an insane amount of travelers staying there. I immediately met a bunch of fellow travelers and after talking for a while, we decided to head out and check out the city. This city is a former military city and so it is surrounded by “city walls” on all sides. At the center of these walls, is a tower called The Bell Tower. The tower was built using traditional chinese architecture and was very beautiful. After checking out the tower, we headed to this city’s famous Muslim Quarter. The Muslim Quarter was an awesome set of little streets and allyways full of street vendors selling everything from silk scarves to food and souvineres and everything else that you can imagine. After walking around there for a while, we decided to go and check out a fountain show at one of the local temples. The show was really well done and reminded me of somethintg that I would see at Disneyland or Las Vegas. It was complete with music and dancing water. It was quite the specticle.
The next day, it was time to check out this cities most famous attraction, the Terra Cotta Warriors. For those of you who do not know what these are, they are basically a HUGE set of Terra Cotta Army Soldiers that were created during this one emporer’s rule and were burried with him in order to “protect him” and ensure his rule would last for ever. The complex consists of over six-thousand warriors and many more are believed to still be burried. It was an AMAZING (like everything else it seems) site and it was truly unbelieveable. The warriors were only discovered in 1974 by a peasant worker who was digging a well. We were even lucky enough to get to meet the origional discoverer. He was at the museum when we arrived. After the warriors, we came back to the hostel and grabbed dinner before turning in for the night. Today, (May 20th) it is time to head to Vietnam. Be sure to check back for more updates soon!
Until Next Time,
Evan
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