Last time we went to see Terra-Cotta  warriors and horses, this time we gonna go more places in Xi’an.

First, we will go the landmark of Xi’an—-The Bell Tower of Xi’an and the Drum Tower of Xi’an. The two towers are facing each other. They are the grandest and oldest in China. The bell tower was built in 1384 during Ming dynasty. It still contains some large bronze bells of Tang Dynasty. The Drum Tower was built four years before it. There are many large drums inside it. The structures of Bell Tower and the Drum Tower are very similar. They are made by bricks and timbers. Each of them is almost 40 meters high and cover the area of almost 1400 square meters.  The shape of their eaves are very traditional Chinese style which the four ends will go up a little bit like a bird that is ready to fly. Not only the structure, the color is also indicate the old Chinese style. They are very typical Chinese old building. i will show you a picture below.

In old days, the bell was stricken in the morning at dawn and the bell was beat in evening at sunset to tell citizen time. The sound can spread all over the city. I once saw a novel, the two protagonists go up to the top floor of the drum tower at night, sit together, look at the stars and talk about the future. That scene always stuck in my mind and inspires me to go to Xi’an. Hope you can also go there and see!

Another important place in Xi’an is the Giant Goose Pagoda. It was built in the time of emperor Gaozong of Tang for Monk Xuanzang to store those buddhist texts, figures of Buddha and the buddhist relics he brought back from old india. The pagoda clearly indicate the style of Tang dynasty. There are also two steles that have the articles of Emperor Taizong and Emperor Gaozong.  Overall i think Giant Goose Pagoda is very special and worth seeing, especially if you are interested in Buddhism. Here is the photo of it.

The food in Xi’an is also a big attraction for tourists. Xi’an is located in North-western China which have the special dietary habit. The major food of people live in North-western China is wheaten food. Although they only eat wheaten food and no rice, there are still various and bountiful food.

-One of the most famous food of Xi’an is called “yang rou pao mo”,  which is diced Chinese bun soaked in lamb soup.

The lamb soup is cooked separately for over 6 hours. It taste very fresh, the diced Chinese bun have the flavor of the lamb soup. There is also silk noodle under the bun.  You also can add some white pepper in it by yourself. Eat one bowl of it always made me feel warm and satisfied. People in Xi’an always eat it for breakfast with another famous food called “Rou Jia Mo”

-Rou Jia Mo

“Rou Jia Mo” is Chinese bun filled with diced lamb. It kind of look like a sandwich. The lamb is pickled with soy sauce and boiled with the soup of pork bone. The outside of the bun is crispy and the inner part is soft. You can also add red pepper sauce if you like. It is my favorite breakfast. My dad always bought it for me on the way to school.

“Liang Pi” is also a very famous food of Xi’an.

Hope you can taste it yourself when you go to Xi’an!

Xi’an is definitely a good city to travel for a foreigner due to its history background, building and those food. Next time we will go Sinkiang to travel!

This time we gonna go to XI’AN (西安 in Chinese) in Shanxi province, one of the oldest cities in China and also one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of the world. Thirteen dynasties including Zhou, Qin, Han, Sui and Tang in Chinese history made XI’AN become their capitals. Xi’An even had longer history of being a capital than Beijing. Besides the important social significance, Xi’An also was also an economic influential city in Chinese history. It is the eastern terminus of The Silk Road and also the port to transfer the good and luxury of China to Europe. You will understand why Xi’an was such an important city when you see the map. (The red area in map is the province where Xi’an at).

The Historical places in Xi’an are really worth seeing. In the following 2 blogs I will introduce some famous and beautiful places that you definitely do not want to miss if you would go to Xi’an.

The Terracotta Warriors and Horses. It is most important and attractive for the traveler of Xi’an.

It is the mausoleum of the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang(259B.C.–210B.C.). According to history, the emperor started to plan and build the mausoleum when he was thirteen years old. It took thirty-eight years to build the whole graveyard and the terracotta sculptures.  The purpose of he build this underground army was to protect himself after death.

The mausoleum covers an area of 16,300 square meters, divided into three sections: No. 1 Pit, No. 2 Pit, and No. 3 Pit respectively. They were tagged in the order of their discoveries. No. 1 Pit is the largest, first opened to the public on China’s National Day, 1979. It is 5 meters deep and 14260 square meters large. There are almost six thousands warriors, horses and chariots in the Pit. They construct a round formation army. No. 2 Pit, found in 1976, is 20 meters northeast of No. 1 Pit. It is six thousands square meter large and contained over a thousand warriors and 90 chariots of wood. It was unveiled to the public in 1994.Archeologists came upon No. 3 Pit also in 1976, 25 meters northwest of No. 1 Pit. It is 520 square meters large and looked like to be the command center of the armed forces with 68 warriors, a war chariot and four horses. The three Pits construct a triangle, which the two armies are at front and the command center is at the back.

Terra Cotta Warriors is divided into 11 kinds：the general warriors, car warriors and driver, shoot warriors(standing), shoot warriors(kneeling),warrior figure, cavalry warriors, the horse warriors, weapon warriors. Every types have different motions and faces.

The artisans in that time not only lifelike perfectly  copy the figure, action of warriors and horses. The amazing part is that those figures and actions contain large variety. The faces of warriors are very different because the warriors in Qin’s army were from different areas of China. Surprisingly, almost every facial variation of modern Chinese man can be found amongst the warrior figures. Even the horses also have variable figures. All the warriors and horses were actually colorful, but the color disappeared because of oxidation when they were be unearthed. Here i’ll show you some pictures and hope you can go there to explore!~

I choose Jinan as our first tour because it is my hometown. I think i know it better than any other cities since i have lived there over 15 years. I will provide an all-sided introduction for you and even can give you an actual tour if you visit here.

Jinan is in Shandong province which is in the eastern China. The red circle in the following picture.

Geographically, the ground there is flat and very suitable for planting. So for over five thousand years, the people in Shandong had stable and wealthy life and also grew inwardly. Confucius derived here. Emperors from every dynasty went to Shandong and climb Tai mountain to show people their power.

Jinan is provincial capital city of Shandong Province. It is a very important city that connecting the railway from southern China to Northern China. Jinan is famous for the spring（water). In the old days, almost every family had their own nature springs and they used very clean underground water for drinking, cooking and washing. Now there are still 72 nature springs in Jinan, but not for everyone daily use. The architectures and the living style of Jinan is very different from other cities in Northern China but more like Southern China.  I guess it may due to the springs. And the living tempo of Jinan is kind of slow.

-Where to go in Jinan

Baotu Springs — the most famous spring in Jinan. Qianlong Emperor of Qing dynasty gave this name. There a stone monument that has his true calligraphy on it. It includes three springs and is most beautiful in summer because the rain season of Jinan is summer.  In summer, when the water is flourish, there will be fog and looks like wonderland. There are also many red and yellow carps around the springs. The colors looks very beautiful. There are also a j

Qianfo Mountain — Means thousand buddhas mountain in Chinese. It is not high but have many different style of Buddhas. And there are two very big buddhas，one is sitting buddhas, 20 meters high and 30 meters diameter and one is lying buddha that is 18 meters long. Every morning from 5 o’clock to 7 o’clock and night from 7 o’clock to 9 o’clock, the ticket is free . I always went to climb the mountain for exercising with my grandparents when i was little and met many friends there to play with. One interesting thing is if you go there very early, you can hear many people sing there or even just shout. I did that several times when i felt too much pressure. I would go there, breathe some fresh air and shout out. I think it does help!

Daming Lake — is the largest lake in Jinan and fill with the spring from Baotu Spring. Sometimes when the weather is good, sunny, you can see the reflection of Qianfo Mountain in Daming Lake. There are also many water lily in the summer.  It’s very good to take a walk around it or rent a boat.  Even in summer, it is still very cool around the lake.

next time will be the where to eat in Jinan!

When i first heard passion blog, there’re two ideas pop into my head.

First one is that i want to do my passion blog about travel in China. It may includes the beautiful place to go in China, history and some general information about there, interesting things to do there, and good and special food there.

Second topic is to do a fashion blog  about different brands, styles, some fashion clothes, bags and glasses.