Xian
Thursday, October 30, 2003
Now in Xian the ancient capital of the Chinese Empire. Today went to view the Terracotta Warriors. An amazing sight especially considering they were buried for over 2000 years. Xian is a busy city whose prime attraction is the warriors. It still has the ancient city walls and i spent a few hours walking round them yesterday.
Over the last week I visited Nanjing and Shanghai. Nanjing is full of parks and temples with a large number of mausoleum to visit. It also has a memorial to the 300,000 Chinese who were massacred by the Japanese in just two months during the war. They were rounded up and machine gunned down, or beheaded and stabbed with bayonets. The museum has a number of photographs of the killings taking place for which you need a strong stomach.
Shanghai was frantic and busy. The waterfront was a mass of tourists and touts all trying to flog you a Timex watch. Quite exhausting but with some hideaways to catch your breath. My hotel overlooked the main shopping square and I even had a balcony to go and wave to the crowds.
Tomorrow I get the overnight train to Chengdu and then maybe a trip sown the Yangtze through the Three Gorges, depending on how much time I have.
Over the last week I visited Nanjing and Shanghai. Nanjing is full of parks and temples with a large number of mausoleum to visit. It also has a memorial to the 300,000 Chinese who were massacred by the Japanese in just two months during the war. They were rounded up and machine gunned down, or beheaded and stabbed with bayonets. The museum has a number of photographs of the killings taking place for which you need a strong stomach.
Shanghai was frantic and busy. The waterfront was a mass of tourists and touts all trying to flog you a Timex watch. Quite exhausting but with some hideaways to catch your breath. My hotel overlooked the main shopping square and I even had a balcony to go and wave to the crowds.
Tomorrow I get the overnight train to Chengdu and then maybe a trip sown the Yangtze through the Three Gorges, depending on how much time I have.