A little after 7:00 in the morning the train arrived in Xi’an. Outside the station someone was holding up a paper with my name on it. The first time that’s ever happened! I emailed a hostel for a reservation and asked for a free pickup from the station, and it worked out well. I wanted to reserve with hostelworld.com, but I need a credit card to make pay the 10% deposit. So now I have to contact the people directly.
My first opinion of the ancient capital of China was “Where is the sun?” There was so much fog or smog or something made it really dark. The interesting part about this city is a grand wall surrounding a large part of the city, just like in old times. It is possible to walk around the entire wall, taking 4 hours.
The Xiangzimen Youth Hostel is quite the place. It is located in a traditional style Chinese building. In fact there are many old buildings around and all over the city. For just over $5/night I am staying here in a four person dorm room.
Today I visited the world famous Terracotta Army. There are three pits there and unfortunately one was closed. I also visited the place the army was guarding, the tomb of the 1st Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. The tomb is one of the most important archeological sites in the world and because of that they are not excavating it now. Instead you can walk up on top of the huge burial mound.