Xi'an, China (Placement of the Curse)

We arrived in Xi'an and proceeded to freeze our asses off. Having spent two weeks in India where the temperature was 60 - 80 and sunny almost every day, to China where the temperature was 30 - 40 and cloudy everyday, we had some adjustment. We didn't have anything planned our first day in Xi'an so when we arrived at the hotel in the evening we were on our own. There really isn't much to do in Xi'an so we spent some time in the hotel's bar. It was entertaining as we got to watch a middle-aged man get drunk in the bar and watch the wait staff bend over backwards to make sure he didn't lose face. We also walked next door to our hotel to what appeared to be a large bar, but was actually a shady massage parlor. We walked inside and asked the girls at the front desk what the 600RMB massage was and they all looked at each other and started giggling. That told us enough.

Our first day in Xi'an we visited the Terracotta Warriors. The Terracotta Warriors are kept in a large museum/park area. Large buildings, similar to a hangar, have been built over the Terracotta sites. There are actually 3 separate pits with sites, each has its own building. The first building we toured was the largest and most interesting. The first building had exposed all of the trenches the warriors were in and had pieced the warriors together so it looked like it did originally. The other two buildings were not nearly as interesting. The Terracotta Warriors are an archaeological dig in process. The last two buildings we visited contained broken warriors or simply dirt with warriors supposedly underneath. Spending an hour in a large, unheated building looking at dirt isn't that interesting.

We got back to our hotel in the afternoon and almost the entire tour group, about 9 of us, went on a beer run in Xi'an. Picture this, 9 American tourists, all but two white, walking around the streets of a working class Chinese neighborhood asking anyone if they speak English or where we could find beer. We weren't very productive. After an hour we settled on something that looked like beer. Later that night we were treated to a traditional Chinese music and dance show. Luckily for us, we were able to smuggle in beer :) . The show was ok and the dinner was the same food we had for the previous 3 days, but we had a blast. When we got back to the hotel the four of us, Tim, Chloe, Lara and I played cards and drank until the early morning.

We woke up the next morning to a snowy landscape. It had snowed a little less than an inch and the city looked kind of pretty. We were toured around old town Xi'an which reminded us a lot of Lucca. The old town has a large wall and moat surrounding it, with towers every 100 yards or so. There were several cool pagodas and other neat sites. Lara and I split off from the rest of the group and walked around the Muslim area of town. The Muslim area wasn't Islamic, but it had a very cool neighborhood feel. There weren't any tourist chachky shops and the people were overwhelmingly happy to see us.

We met up with the rest of the group and we walked back to the bus. On the way to the bus we were harassed by a pushy 'hallo person'. 'Hallo people' are people who are trying to sell fake Rolexes, designer handbags, or cheap pieces of tourist junk. They are called 'Hallo people' because they always address you by saying "Hallo." This hallo person was a 60 something old lady who was trying to sell something we had seen a dozen times. I don't remember what I said or did, but suffice to say I probably wasn't too mature. I turned my back on the lady and she pushed me. She said some nasty words in Mandarin and then stuck her tongue out at me. She finished her display by sliding her hand over her throat like it was being sliced. Nobody was sure what her deal was, but we think a curse was placed.....