Shaanxi

We took a high speed train out of Beijing towards Xi’an, but stopped off for a day’s hike up Huashan along the way. This is one of many sacred mountains in China (this one Daoist); we would manage two in this trip. Most visitors here go up by cable car and visit two of the four peaks (which does involve a reasonable amount of climbing between them), but we were full of energy and decided to do all four peaks all on foot in one day. The climb along the path was interesting, with good views back over the mist and some vertigo-inducing stairs.

In Xi’an itself, we obviously had to go and see the Terracotta Warriors. These were on the outskirts of town, and we took a bus out there first thing in the morning to beat the crowds. This turned out to be a great move, as we were able to spend a good amount of time appreciating the scale of it all in relative serenity.

We spent a couple of days in Xi’a overall. On the remainder of the first day, we went to see Big Goose Pagoda (one of the main tourists sights). This was a Saturday night, and Xi’an was very lively, and we wandered around for a while just soaking up the atmosphere.

The following day, we went for a walk around the city walls before exploring the muslim quarter. In a suprising success, we got some vegetarian street food in Xi’an, which was really good. We ate in a pretty nice local restuarant as well, but also took the customary trip to Din Tai Fung for dumplings.