On to city # 2 -Xi'an

Stop two was another small city called Xi'an. I don't remember it to well because the first night were there I got sick. Yuck! We ate at this place called the hot pot. They give you a pot with broth in it and light a fire under it. You wait till the broth boils and then add a bunch of stuff to cook. They had slices of lamb and beef, all sorts of vegetables, noodles and of course you eat it with rice. It was really yummy actually but when we got to our room and into bed, I had trouble staying out of the bathroom. I woke up the next morning feeling like garbage but still wanted to go see the Terra-Cotta warriors. How could I miss that. I'm so glad that I went because it was flipping awesome! Its amazing that they made these things to protect the tomb of the emperor. I can't remember many details about how long they take or anything but I remember thinking WOW! If you ever get to hit up China, go here. Its sweet. The first pic is some of the warriors. They were all lined up and facing a certain way, like a battle routine.
Here is some more of the room with the warriors. They used to be beautifully painted but when the undug them the sun made the paint dissolve. If you look you can see some of the warriors and crushed. When they found these warriors they had been that way, smashed. Back in the day there was a revolt and they ruined the tomb. If you look closer you can see the walls. Each row was encased in rooms with ceilings and walls.
Close up. Just amazing!
This was the best view to show the whole room. Excuse the kill me now face. You can see the camera isn't even pointed to show the whole room. It was gigantic and that was only the one room. There is 2 more! Each room with its own meaning.
Drew in the getup out side.
So these pictures start our second day in Xi'an. They are backwards so maybe start from the bottom but it doesn't really matter which way. We went to check out the city wall. It surrounded the whole old city of Xi'an. It was really neat. Before they opened the gates of the city they put on a little show and then let down the bridge over the mot. We rented tandem bikes and did the entire wall on them. It took FOREVER! At the end it started to ran so it was funny. Thankfully I was feeling a little better. It came off and on. One of the sweetest things about China is they don't really use toilet paper and 99% of their toilets are squatters. So ya being sick in China, No Bueno! I'll have to post a pic of a toilet. It was nasty! Anyways, this pic was when we were probably half way around the city wall. The building is classic Chinese architecture. Everyone was thankful for the little break.
Close up
A view of the wall and another cool building
Drew and I on the wall
Cracking up while waiting for the others. Man, I wanna go back! It was so fun!!!
Told ya we were having fun!
cheesin it!
Riding the wall
Climbing up the stairs to the top
at the top
just to show ya how big the wall we biked was!
The front gate.
A tunnel inside the city
A view of the wall and the city street below

China, Day One- Guilin

I'm finally posting things on our blog. So much has happened I can't even begin to start, but I gotta start somewhere. I picked China since I have the pics on this computer and the memories are pretty fresh in my mind. So China was Awesome! I'm not going to do all the pics in one day cause shoot! We were gone for two weeks so it would take hours. Plus blogger is being sweet and I have to load the pics one at a time. Anyways to get started. My generous in laws took all of their chitlins on their 30th anniversary trip. Sweet eh! So for two weeks we explored China. We left August 7th from LAX. We flew to Canada and then took off for our 12 hour flight to Shanghai. We landed in Shanghai at 2pm on Sat and jumped on another 2 1/2 hour flight to Guilin. We got to Guilin around 930pm Saturday and by then we were pooped! We were so excited to jump into our nice soft beds. Now that's a joke! We jumped onto our bed face first, arms straight out to land upon a nice hard box spring. Yup, they sleep on box springs with a thin pad. It took some getting used to but either way, soft bed or not, we were just so happy to be able to sleep. The plane from Canada to China was awesome though. We watched movies the whole time so the trip went quick. After a nice nights sleep we got on our tour bus and headed for our LiRiver cruise. The cruise took us through a beautiful area of the river. They say the most scenic part of china. An area of the cruise that we passed is on one of their bills. We ate a traditional meal with meats in sauces that even if I could guess what meat it was I would probably be wrong but still was pretty good. They finish all their meals with watermelon so that was the yummiest part. We got off at Yangshuo where we enjoyed shopping all the little markets. IT WAS AWESOME!!! I got a purse, a panting and Drew got a watch that was a Rolex'. A Rolex that every night would stop working and he'd have to reset the time. haha Quality! We dabbled in there 'milkshakes' which consisted of warm milk and fruit. Not cold at all. We then ate pizza from a different cafe and were so thankful for western food. After shopping and what not we headed back to the bus. We walked the streets of Guilin at night for a little then headed back to our hotel. We got up and ate from a little market down the road. We ate bread alot because thats what we knew. The people there eat noodles alot or they'll eat this dumplings with stuff in them. They have vendors all over the street selling this. After breakfast, we headed to the airport to get onto our plan to xi'an. Stay tuned for day 5 of our trip... now to explain our pics. They are completely backwards. The cruise is at the end and the end is at the beginning. In this pic we were done shopping and waiting at one of the nicer hotels in yangshuo. Can I just say, China is so flippin hot! you literally sweat none stop all day! Guilin was probably the hottest city we were in though. In the pic from left to right.. Logan (Drews bro) blue shirt Sadie (Logans Gf) Megan (Drews sister) Me Drew Dad W Mom W

A frequent occurrence on the streets. People carrying all sorts of things
Mid shopping...
The crazy shops their. The people will follow you begging you to bargain with them. I got a burberry purse for 12 bucks! Ya probably a fake but who would know?!
on the LiRiver cruise. So stunning!

Wild bison in the water just drinking
Love the dramatic land scape of the mountains
on the cruise excited to get underway
more of what we saw
my hunka hunka burnin love! ;)
you see these little guys all over the place. They tie bamboo together and sell their product to the cruise ships
us on the lower level
Heading out