i love xi'an. it's such a beautiful place. the moment u exit the railway station, u'll see the city wall. the buildings there are nothing like those modern structures we usually see in big cities e.g. beijing. everyone. welcome to 古都西安.
ChAPtER 1. thE tRAiN RidE
ChAPtER 1. thE tRAiN RidE
the beijing railway station isn't as lok-kok as i thought. it feels like an airport. but then in china, expect a HUGE crowd within the station. dun have to worry about food cos there are instant noodles, snacks, drinks, fruits etc for sale within the station and on the train itself.
the train ride felt like an MRT train ride. all lights will be out by 10:00pm. in other words, u have to be on your bed by 10:00pm. sleeping on the train isn't difficult at all. but you'll probably wake up the next morning with a stiff back and muscle aches. hahaha~
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ChAPtER 2. WELCOME tO Xi'AN.
once we got out of the railway station, we saw this huge city wall. the ones you always see on tv. this wall surrounds the entire city centre of xi'an.
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ChAPtER 3. MOUNtAiN HUA 华山
after putting down our luggages in the hotel, we left for Mt. Hua, the western mountain of china's five sacred taoist mountains.
the train is stuffy, "cosy", and stinky. STUFFY initially when the train's not moving cos the ventilator will be off. "COSY" cos there's only a narrow corridor allowing only one person to walk through each time. STINKY cos one person smokes and the whole cabin gets it. they should really divide the train into smoking and non-smoking cabins. for the sake of foreign travellers like us. lol.
there were 2 ang mohs on board the same cabin as us. very cute. they thought the train has a restaurant or something (like the european trains), so they didn't bring any food stuff with them. and when they realised that there isn't a food place on board, the lady said: "shit".
the train ride felt like an MRT train ride. all lights will be out by 10:00pm. in other words, u have to be on your bed by 10:00pm. sleeping on the train isn't difficult at all. but you'll probably wake up the next morning with a stiff back and muscle aches. hahaha~
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ChAPtER 2. WELCOME tO Xi'AN.
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| outside the xi'an railway station. |
once we got out of the railway station, we saw this huge city wall. the ones you always see on tv. this wall surrounds the entire city centre of xi'an.
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| part of the city wall. according to internet sources, there are a total of 18 city gates in xi'an! and this one, is 尚德门. i also saw 尚武门 and 尚勤门 along the way. |
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ChAPtER 3. MOUNtAiN HUA 华山
after putting down our luggages in the hotel, we left for Mt. Hua, the western mountain of china's five sacred taoist mountains.
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| 华山 = 财富山!? |
we first took a bus from the hotel to the railway station. had our lunch (fried rice and dumplings) at mcdonalds (got warned by the security: no outside food allowed), then took the 12:00pm train to Mt. Hua. it was a 2-hour journey. the scenery along the way was magnificent. good for the eyes and relaxes the mind. i've never seen big farms like these in my life. except those in textbooks. watch the following video. i'm sure you'll love it too.
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| my train ticket! |
finally, we arrived. we planned to take a bus up to the foot of Mt. Hua, but we couldn't find it and no one seemed to know where all the buses are. so we ended up taking the cab. it was a bumpy ride. this place doesn't seem to have a proper road for cars. i feel like i'm in a deserted island/countryside. haha~ anyway, we got there safely. after purchasing the tickets, we boarded another bus which brought us to the cable car. along the way, u hear all the "woah" from passengers on board (including us). compared to Mt. Hua, i really think our bukit timah hill and 小桂林 is nothing...
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| Mt. Hua railway station. |
Mt. Hua's well-known for its steepness. therefore, locals would always recommend climbing the mountain at night when it's dark, cos when it's dark, u won't be frightened off by the height and the steepness of the mountain. look at the picture below and you'll know why. furthermore, all visitors are required to purchase insurance along with the entry ticket, which is important because there are still reports of fatalities despite the safety measures introduced all these years. so, without consideration, we decided to take the cable car instead. lol.
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| (source: wikipedia) |
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| entry ticket. |
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| insurance to be purchased together with the entry ticket. |
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| bus tickets for the buses that brought us up Mt. Hua to the cable car station. |
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| cable car ticket/card. |
sigh. guess i'm the only one who watches wuxia drama serials. nobody knew what i was talking about until we reached one of the peaks and saw this big stone saying "华山论剑"...
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| i'm at the top of the world looking~ hey we really climbed the mountain ok (though we took the cable car). the cable car doesn't bring you to the peaks. u still have to climb it yourself. |
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| we conquered the north peak of Mt. Hua! it's 10X taller than our little bukit timah hill, and it's still NOT the highest peak of Mt. Hua yet! |
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| don't u find the background familiar? i think we've seen something similar on bukit timah hill and 小桂林, but the size of this is MANY times larger than what we have back home! |
we took lots of pictures on Mt. Hua. it feels great to be at the top of the mountain, with the sun shining on you, and omg the FRESH air! we'd like to conquer the other peaks as well but time's running out and we have to get to the bottom of the mountain by evening. so yea. off we went and this time we took a BULLET train back to xi'an, which only took ~30 minutes to reach.
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| bullet train ticket! |
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| the bullet train! |
the bullet train is SUPER DUPER FAST, but u dun feel it when u're on board. everything feels and looks normal. haha~ but it's so much more comfortable and cleaner than the normal trains. next time we're so gonna take the bullet train instead of the normal train. lol.
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| back in xi'an! |
ChAPtER 4. MUSLiM StREEt
this street is very near where our hotel is. it's busy in the day and busier at night. didn't manage to capture nice pictures of this street. but yea. they sell all kinds of street snacks (小吃) like the 甄糕, 核桃酥, 花生酥，绿豆糕... local cuisines like the biang biang noodle, 羊肉泡馍, 肉夹馍, 饸饹 etc... we've tried almost everything mentioned above i guess, but just like any other food served in china, they're all saltier and oilier than what we're used to. good news is, xi'an food generally tastes better than beijing food (we thought), especially their noodles. we even bought 3-kg of "粗米粉" look-alike noodles from a particular stall for that reason. lol~
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| the special "biang" word for biang biang noodle. heh. (click to enlarge!) |
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| another postcard listing down all the places u gotta visit in xi'an. |
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| postcard listing down all the local food one should try when visiting xi'an. |
did a lot of shopping (in fact most of my shopping) at muslim street. check out all my 战利品s below!
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| handphone accessories for mummy (right) and papa (left)! inside each of these is a rice grain with your name carved on it~ |
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| stephy's got one too! |
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| harley davidson model for sale at only RMB5 each! |
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| cool. feels like a 3D jigsaw puzzle. lol. |
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| didn't dare to buy this book initially cos i have no idea what the 十怪s are. thought they are monsters or something... |
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| but then i realise 十怪 refers to 十件奇怪的事情. nothing scary. in fact these paper cuttings look very nice~ |
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| this is a pen with a cute mascot which looks like a tomato. lol. this mascot's for the upcoming xi'an expo. it's actually the xi'an flower... if i'm not wrong. haha~ |
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| i've always wanted to buy this die. haha. it decides whether u should cook/ wash the dishes/do the laundry/rest... |
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ChAPtER 5. HOtEL.
they call our hotel 公寓式酒店. so i guess that's why our hotel room looked like a small apartment rather than the usual hotel rooms we're used to. it has 2 beds, a toilet, tv, a kitchen, and a rack for u to hang your wet clothes/towel. very comfortable place to rest. i realised i forgot to take a photo of how it's like but, there is one showing weining and liling squatting at a corner in the hotel room eating their... i dunno what... haha~
the heater system is so different from what we're used to. first u have to heat up the water until it reaches 75+ degree celcius. then as u bathe the temperature will keep dropping. so, all of us have to bathe and keep a look-out at the temperature at the same time. otherwise, the last person would probably freeze to death. lol~
on the second morning in xi'an, i was washing my face halfway when suddenly the water supply was cut-off. so i ended up washing off the remaining facial foam on my face with a bottle of mineral water instead. hahaha. called up the hotel guy and he managed to fix it. so yea. i should have waited a little while more before i clean up. or rather, never be the first person to start cleaning up. hahaha.
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ChAPtER 6. hUA QiNG hOtSPRiNG 华清池.
on day 2 of our xi'an trip, we took bus 306 from the railway station and alighted at Hua Qing Hotspring. the bus journey took about 30 minutes or so.
Hua Qing Hotspring is famed for both its dainty spring scenery and the romantic love story of Emperor Xuanzong (685-762) and his concubine Yang Guifei in the Tang Dynasty (618-907).
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| that beautiful mountain in the background is Lishan (骊山). according to a cab driver, Lishan is a 死火山. maybe that's where all the heat and minerals/substances for the Huaqing Hotspring come from~ |
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| guess this is holy water or something... just look at the crowd!! |
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| the "色伯伯"s... lol. if we're not wrong, this statue is 杨贵妃, bathing... |
全球首映!!
take a tour around Huaqing Hotspring with hosts weining and jocelyn, director liling, and video-grapher me.
Part 1: Star Pool 星辰汤
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| the star pool was built for Emperor Taizong in 644. in this video, host jocelyn will explain to us how the first heating system came about. |
Part 2: Shangshi Pool 尚食汤
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| the shangshi pool was built for imperial chefs and palace officials. in this video, host jocelyn will explain to us how "acupuncture" may be applied to hotsprings. |
Part 3: Lotus Flower Pool 莲花汤
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| the lotus flower pool was built in 747 exclusively for Emperor Xuanzong. in this video, host weining will explain to us the structure of the lotus flower pool. |
director refuses to be captured in the film.
Part 4: 温泉古源 二号出水口
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| in this video, host weining will explain to us the reason why the water appears green in here. |
in this video, host weining and director liling explain to us
what's going on in the "smoky" cave.
and probably why our water in beijing is yellow...
Part 6: 金沙洞
in this first video, we shall explore the mysterious cave.
in this second video, we shall discover the reason why
host weining finds this place very "诈钱".
Part 7: Crabapple Pool 海棠汤
the crabapple pool was built in 747 for Lady Yang (杨贵妃),
the favourite concubine of Emperor Xuanzong.
in this video, host weining will explain to us
the structure of the crabapple pool,
and host jocelyn will tell u how she feels about this pool.
in this video, host weining will explain to us
the structure of the crabapple pool,
and host jocelyn will tell u how she feels about this pool.
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