Yesterday we shared with you our experiences of our River Cruise in China on the Yangtze River… and as mentioned, quite the experiences they were!
Today we’ll pick up from there and we’ll explore the next leg of our journey…
…our visit to the famous “Terracotta Warriors”!
We disembarked our Yangtze River Cruise in a city called Chongqing… now this is no insignificant city in China as it’s home to around 30 million people… coming from Canada (which is many times the size of Chongqing and has about the same population) all we can say is… WOW!! 🙂
Our time was brief in Chongqing as we had to catch our early afternoon flight to Xi’an (we pronounce it “shee-anne”) for the Terracotta Warriors but we experienced a huge highlight there which was visiting the Chongqing Zoo…
…it was such a highlight because not only did we get to see many exotic species that we hadn’t seen before but we got to see the cuddly, cute bears that are native to China… the famous Giant Panda Bears.
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After that great experience and a nice lunch we headed off for our flight to Xi’an.
Now we have to say, we thought before we got to Xi’an we’d see the Terracotta Warriors UNESCO World Heritage Site and that was about it but the city of Xi’an itself was another unexpected treat as it has so much history…
…being one of China’s oldest cities, it has over 3,000 years of history, there’s lots to see and do.
One of the great parts about the city is the ancient feel it still has, due to still having the “City Wall” fortress-like wall surrounding it and beautiful sites like the city’s Bell Tower… check it out in the pic below.
As mentioned, the city has a long history… it was one of the major starting points of the famous “silk road” that ran across many Asian countries back in the day.
A great way though to get a “live” feel of the history in Xi’an is to do what we did during our evening there… take in the Tang Dynasty music & dance show… the color and detail of their costumes, the music, the talent… all awesome!!
Wow, as you can see, day 1 in Xi’an certainly was a fun and full one but day 2 got even better… today was a “check off an item in your bucket list” kinda day. 🙂
Visiting the “Terracotta Warriors”… now that was cool!!
Thanks to the farmers who discovered this famous site back in 1974!
With estimates of over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses, China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, was serious about being protected in the after-life! 🙂
If you want to see all our pics of Xi’an, the Terracotta Warriors & of our River Cruise go to our Terracotta Warriors & Yangtze River Cruise photos & videos.
So there you have it… we’re about 75% of the way through our time in China on our “Yangtze River” Cruise & Land Tour and as you can see, it’s simply an awesome place to visit, experience and bring home amazing memories of!
But hang tight, we’re not done yet… tomorrow we’ll be covering the last leg of our journey in China…
…in famous Beijing!!
Stay tuned.
We appreciate You!
Nancy & Shawn
Your Trusted Cruise Experts!