While today was mainly a travel day, we did manage to see a couple of interesting things and also learn a bit more Chinese history.

The flight from Beijing to Xi'an went very smoothly despite very high levels of security at the airport (largely due to threats from Islamic dissidents).

Xi'an is a smaller city but is by no means small. To put things into perspective, while Beijing has 21 million people and is the size of the state of Hawaii, Xi'an only has 8.8 million, a little bigger than New York City! To say things are booming In Xi'an would be an understatement- the skyline is littered with cranes constructing new high rise buildings.

Historically Xi'an is one of the oldest major cities in China and was the capital during the Qin, Han, and Tang dynasties. It's famous as the starting point of the famous Silk Road, the legendary 4,000 mile trade route from Chína to Istanbul (and ultimately Rome). It's also famous for the major archeological discovery, the Terracotta Warriors -- more about that tomorrow.





It also is the only major city whose ancient city gate is still is entire intact (although modern Xi'an extends well beyond it). We spend some time at the gate after landing and befor heading to our hotel. It's 33 meters high and 12 meters wide giving some good view of the city and serving as a popular bike path for locals.

The evening consisted of dinner and a musical performance at the Tang Dynasty Theater. The Tang Dynasty existed from roughly between 600 and 900 AD and was considered somewhat of a golden age. At the theater we saw an impressive performance of an orchestra made up of original Chinese instruments and some wonderful dancers in elaborate costumes. The performances were inspired by legends and traditions from the Tang Dynasty.









Conflicting modification by jdmass on July 3, 2015 at 9:07:46 PM:
While today was mainly a travel day, we did manage to see a couple of interesting things and also learn a bit more Chinese history.

The flight from Beijing to Xi'an went very smoothly despite very high levels of security at the airport (largely due to threats from Islamic dissidents).

Xi'an is a smaller city but is by no means small. To put things into perspective, while Beijing has 21 million people and is the size of the state of Hawaii, Xi'an only has 8.8 million, a little bigger than New York City! To say things are booming In Xi'an would be an understatement- the skyline is littered with cranes constructing new high rise buildings.

Historically Xi'an is one of the oldest major cities in China and was the capital during the Qin, Han, and Tang dynasties. It's famous as the starting point of the famous Silk Road, the legendary 4,000 mile trade route from Chína to Istanbul (and ultimately Rome). It's also famous for the major archeological discovery, the Terracotta Warriors -- more about that tomorrow.





It also is the only major city whose ancient city gate is still is entire intact (although modern Xi'an extends well beyond it). We spend some time at the gate after landing and befor heading to our hotel. It's 33 meters high and 12 meters wide giving some good view of the city and serving as a popular bike path for locals.

The evening consisted of dinner and a musical performance at the Tang Dynasty Theater. The Tang Dynasty existed from roughly between 600 and 900 AD and was considered somewhat of a golden age. At the theater we saw an impressive performance of an orchestra made up of original Chinese instruments and some wonderful dancers in elaborate costumes. The performances were inspired by legends and traditions from the Tang Dynasty.