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August 20, 2006
China Part 4 -- Xi'an and World Park
We had mixed emotions about our last day in Beijing. Our main stop on the itinerary was to a place called World Park. It's a park filled with replicas of the world's monunments at one tenth size. While it was somewhat interesting, we mostly got the feeling that it was a very touristy with not the best construction.
However, there was a crocodile and elephant show done by some Thai nationals. The show was entertaining, but we heard that if zoos are like prisons for animals, then the zoos in Beijing were like death row. So, suffice it to say, that as fun as the show was, we came away feeling sorry for these poor creatures.
That said, here are the images from the show.
Then, back to downtown Beijing to visit on last temple.
This time we went to Lama Temple. Lama, as you may be aware, is the term for a Tibetan religous (Buddhist) teacher (similar to a Guru). So, there were many young monks around and this temple was probably the most vibrant of all the ones we visited (even if the pictures don't really show it...).
Here is our guide, Woo, again.
A couple more images of city life in Beijing.
After our time in Beijing, we boarded a flight down to Xi'an. While Beijing is a massive megapolis at 16 million people and feels like an enormous city, Xi'an, is also a large city by all rights with over 6 million inhabitants. In fact, in all our travels in China, we felt that there were lots of people everywhere. Perhaps even more so than Japan. Of course with 1.3 billion people spread out over a vast country, it brings the People's Republic of China down to the 71st most densely populated countries (Monaco is the #1, if you're curious, while Macau and Hong Kong are #2 and #3 on the list, and the USA is #172 and Greenland brings up the rear at #230).
Xi'an, was the ancient capital of China, and was the first city in the world to reach 1 million inhabitants (although there is some dispute to that claim). Also, and more notably, it was the eastern end of the Silk Road, when the city was known as Chang'an.
The first stop when we got to Xi'an was to visit the Big Goose Pagoda and the Tang Dynasty Arts Museum.
There were many interesting people also visiting the Pagoda.
The next morning, we got up early and visited the city wall of Xi'an, which although much shorter than the Great Wall, was larger and impressive none the less.
Back in the city, we found many more interesting people.
The man is demonstrating the fashion in China for men to keep cool (yes, it's just the guys who do this ... except one teenage Eurpean girl)
We also went to the regional history museum. It had very helpful displays that depicted the Chinese empires rise and fall through time.
This image was a taste for us of what was to come the next day. This is an actual Terra Cotta warrior from the archeological site outside the city.
The next entry will of course will cover our tour of the magnificent Terra Cotta warrior site.
--Jim
Posted by jim at August 20, 2006 09:55 PM