Xi'an - Our new favorite place in China

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Last weekend we took a quick trip with the Lohses up to Xi'an to see the famous terracotta warriors (bingmayong).  Xi'an is northwest from Shanghai, between here and Beijing.  We hired a tour guide for the weekend, which turned out to be a great investment.  Raphael quickly made friends with the kids with his gifts of chocolate and muslin sweet cakes.  He took us to incredible local restaurants, where we ate the best food we have had in China thus far.  And of course he took us around the city to see the city walls, temples, and the famous terracotta warriors.

The warriors are amazing.  They literally take your breath away when you first see them.  To think that they built this tomb over 2000 years ago with these life size, individually unique warriors was amazing.  But when we learned that they have only unearthed about 5% of the actual tomb, we were just in awe.  An emperor with a vision, no doubt.

This small city in China, with only 11 million people, was so different from Shanghai and other places we have been.  It felt small and real.  It might have been because we were some of the only tourists there, as opposed to the peak months where there are over 80,000 visitors a day.  Either way, we had a blast exploring the Muslim quarter, trying the street food (only the safe stuff of course) and shopping in the back alleys.  And because it was the weekend before Chinese New Year, the whole city was decorated with red lanterns and dragons.  It truly was beautiful.

A highlight of our time in China, no doubt.  My vote to add this back on to the list of the 7 wonders of the world!!

Now it's back to the drawing board planning our next adventure...