Xi'An

The next large trip I took was to Xi'An. We left on the May Day holiday and took a night train from Nanjing to Xi'An. After arriving in Xi'An we checked into our 4 star hotel, which we paid $20 a night. Then we headed to downtown Xi'An where we saw an old Bell Tower and Drum Tower. At the Drum Tower we also were able to see drum performance. After visiting the two towers we went to the Muslim district for dinner. Xi'An is interesting because it has a very large Muslim population. West and northwest China has a large Muslim population. Being the last large city before reaching these minority areas many minorities travel to Xi'An.

The next day in Xi'An we went to see the Terracotta Army. The Terracotta Army is a set of life size statues located in the first emperor's tomb from about 200 B.C.. There are over 8,000 of these statues, with no two of them being the same. This was very cool to see and one of the sites I had most anticipated before coming to China.

After the Terracotta Warriors John and I went to see a Buddhist Temple. This temple is probably the best one I have seen because it was less commercial. Several monks obviously lived there as I saw them doing laundry and other household chores.

After seeing the temple we went to dinner and prepared to travel to Luoyang.

Hainan

After Beijing several of us went to an island called Hainan. Hainan is a large island located south of mainland China. We arrived during the night and found the weather to be very hot and humid. For our first night we went to eat fresh seafood along the beach. We had may oysters and fish. With the fish we were able to select our fish from a tank which was then placed in a plastic bag a beat to death against the sidewalk. That was an interesting experience to see. After dinner we went to the beach where we purchased fireworks and launched them over the ocean. It was a very cool experience.

We spent the next couple of days on the beach where I and the other white kids in our group received horrible sunburns and turned into "lobsters". It was interesting to experience south China. The people on this island seem very different from their mainland counterparts. The people here have darker complexion and seem to stay up very late. It is not uncommon to see a lot of people eating dinner well after midnight.

After a couple of days of laying on the beach we returned to Nanjing.

Post for Benjamin

I've decided to update my live journal, mostly for Benjamin's benefit. Since it has been two years I do not remember as many details but I will do my best to summerize the rest of my trip.