Destination: Xi'An (China)
Duration: 8 days 9 to 16 Nov 2019
Mode of travel: Celebrity tour with CTC Travels
Damage: $1419/pax + RMB200 (fee for guides) + RMB600 (cable car and performance)
Flight: Scoot, we had 20kg baggage and 7kg hand carry, 1 dinner
Accommodation: We have 4 accommodations, details will be in the post
Weather: -2 to 18 degrees
Currency: approx. SGD1 = RMB5
Time difference: same as Singapore
10/11/2019
Itinerary:
HanCheng Lake Park (汉城湖)
Emperor Qin Terra Cotta Army Museum (兵马俑)
Slept at 2am, woke up around 7am. Sleep deprived which couldn't be recoup through the trip.
The view from the window. Everything include their round about is huge here.
Still got mood to selfie in the lift, as the days went by, I took lesser and lesser photos.
The hotel provides buffet breakfast with a nice ambiance.
Blur patch at the right corner cos my camera lens was dirty and I never notice until a few days later. So I ruined many photos though some were cropped off >.<
The buffet consist of western style with bread, pastry, sausages etc. and also local chinese dishes.
I thought the bamboo steam trays were dim sum within, sadly were all steam potatoes and tapioca, sigh....
My western breakfast plate with plain porridge.
I went for some noodles too, added in lots of veg.
After breakfast, we walked out to see what's around, at the same to take a clear pic of the hotel entrance.
There was a push cart selling breakfast, business was good with many locals patronizing.
Customers chose fillings to put inside the pita bread.
Journey started by 10am.
Our first destination:
HanCheng Lake Park (汉城湖)
The reservoir was constructed in 2006 and the park was open to the public in Oct 2011. The park was really huge, overall size of area not sure.
The short walk was nice with Han style buildings around.
Post box was cute.
Willows swayed in the wind.
We waited for time and went in to try on Han clothing.
Couldn't chose, all wear the same, slight disappointment.
I looked horribly fat with my puffy white top inside but at that time didn't thought of taking it off.
Then they taught us Han etiquette ie. all sorts of bows until I tired de lolxx...
Rayson Tan was able to make the ordinary costume looked a million dollars.
He looked sooooooo good, and I never know until now....
Costume same same, but check out the difference between a veteran actor and my any how hubby lolxx....
Trams were provided, saved a lot of walking.
Rayson pretending to hold the flag when it was actually stationed on the ground, haahaahaa... he really a lot of pattern.
Had a boat ride.
Temperature raised in the noon, hand held my red ridding hood cape all the way, very troublesome.
We went into the museum basically it's about trading along the Silk Road during olden times. Followed the narrating guide like primary kids on education tour then ushered out.
So I had almost no impression other than these few photos.
Modern lift within ancient pagoda (大风阁), else we would be dead climbing lolxx..
The pagoda over looks the park, it's going to take the whole day if one were to explore the entire park by foot.
3 bridges could be seen across the canal.
回澜桥
虹明桥
尚武桥
We had lunch at some seafood restaurant, but we were served none of the below.
So just ate this:
All the others were fast and non-fussy eaters, so everything was gone before I could snap pic lolxx...
After lunch was to Emperor Qin Terra Cotta Army Museum (兵马俑), yeah!
We had earphones where we listened to the tour guide, if we couldn't hear him, that means we lost him lolxx...
Wheel chair could be rented together with a "care giver" who pushed you around following the tour group.
To be (brutally) honest, if you can't walk just go for some cruise or go batam, eat eat and come back. Why waste money and not able to enjoy? Spend money on medical will be more practical. I believe the children meant well, but it's plain torture for the elder and also whoever who brought her along.
China, is not a suitable for elders to travel. They have got the best scenery on earth but one needs to climb and walk (a lot a lot) in order to see and enjoy. But every time we go China, more than 80% of the tour made up of 60 years olds and above.
I felt so sorry for them, but that's where I will be in future. Before this trip, I was still half hearted about my next travel plan cos I am really cash tight. Now, I am determined and tell myself just go! If I have no more money to buy a coffin in future, so be it, no regrets. Walk while I can and eat while I can, seriously...
Back to 兵马俑, the tour guide gotten tickets for us and we moved in together.
It's low season during our visit, it was considered less crowded.
This was the main lobby, the ceiling was specially designed.....
The ceiling casted a shadow at all the 4 granite pillars which resembles a sword.
The entire big building house only 2 exhibits.
4 horse carriage....
And this single horse carriage.
The copper carriages were discovered in 1980s. But these were replicas, the real things are at Shanghai, however I am not able find out the details.
This lady was our guide, she kept talking but it was difficult to absorb.
Behind was a stream of visitors coming in. As I had mentioned, it was low season, couldn't imagine if it's peak.
Moving on to the largest pit.
This is the kind of photo EVERY visitor will take.
The very first terra cotta army was discovered in 1974 by farmers while digging a water well.
It's amazing, this Emperor Qin (秦始皇) must had the biggest tomb ever, why he wanted such a big tomb sia omg....
This is to proof that I was there and the photos were mine (though they all looked same as what you can see online lolxx...)
All of them have different faces, they looked so real that it was rumored there's real human body inside the terra cotta, waahaaahaaa....
Second pit, which could be skipped.
The original of the army were colorful but upon contact with air, all the colors fade into grey. As such the scientists are still finding a way to preserve the colors, so the digging of terra cotta is kind of slow down or stopped.
So, nothing to see.
We spend about 1.5hrs looking at the pits and horse carriages.
It was sun set when we were done.
The guide brought us to their jade (蓝田玉) retail.
Investing on stones is not for me, so just looked away.
We moved on to a unavoidable mini terra cotta army souvenirs. The guide said we could buy from outside but some of them cracked easily due to lousy clay used.
Over here the products are made in the museum with guaranteed quality. So I bought a small kneeling one for fun.
Then no time was given to buy other things.
I actually told the tour guide I was going back to this shop to get some things.
The guide followed me and it was a rush purchase. Bought 2 cartoon army key chains for my sons' girlfriends.
So freaking cute that I regretted not getting one for myself. But there's always TaoBao, heeheehee....
Walking towards the exit, we walked into a small monetary museum which we were hurried to leave in less than 5mins, unfortunately.
It would be interesting if we could stay for another 10mins to take a closer look at the different prints of notes over the years.
There was this interesting food and souvenir street outside the Terra Cotta Army Museum.
We all were like "Waaaaaaaaaaaa......".
The tour guides turned into a farmer, we turned into goats. They kept chasing us back to the barn ie. our bus, we played round and round the street. We managed to buy some tibits, we were desperadoes.
It was only about 6pm but was all dark already.
There was a KFC here and the human size Colonels were dressed in china armors, so freaking cute, wanted to take photo with them but I was already lagged behind the group, urrrgg......
Pomegranate was nice but kinda troublesome to eat with little seeds within.
Pomegranate juice was sold everywhere, however the tour guide advise us to avoid it as the previous group gotten tummy upset after drinking. So we didn't risk it either.
Traffic was busy, the sides of most road was light up with pretty chinese camry knots.
Light decors under a bridge.
Some Christmas lightings along the way.
Before sending us back to the hotel, they gave us 25mins in a shopping region with beautiful lightings for some photo taking.
Ask him to take a photo, he gave me this:
After some screaming, I took a photo of him to show him what I wanted.
He was not happy, I was not happy. Come to think of it, after so many years, why do I keep forcing him to take photos though I already very well know that he hates it and won't do a good job? Suddenly, I finally came to realization that he is not going to be any better in photo taking, and that I will stop demanding him to do it.... yup.
The above photos were taken while running to and fro the toilet in 25mins (cos toilet was so far away).
On the way back to the bus, saw a group of dancers preparing to perform.
Traffic a bit jammed, we reached the hotel around 10pm, sibei tired liao and that's the end of the day.
I had been busy running around but aiming to churn out Day 3 before CNY, thanks for reading.
