Xian Day 2 April 24 (Cont'd.)

After lunch, we finally went to visit the Terra Cotta museum.

After going through the entrance, we had to walk a little while through what seemed like a park to reach the actual museum.

One of the museum's buildings

Another building

And another one

One of the famous Terra Cotta chariots and horses. This part of the museum was not very well lit and it was extremely crowded, as was the rest of the museum. Because of this, I couldn't get a good picture.

Another famous chariot and horses.

A part from the chariots that everyone kept touching.

An important person (I don't know who) was driven into the museum with his or her entourage and cop cars surrounding him or her and a whole group gathered around the whole thing.

Yang Pei Yan, the guy who found the Terra Cotta warriors, who is now very old and spitting all the time, was at the museum signing autographs and books. No one was supposed to take pictures, but I snuck one in. It's hard to see him, but he is sitting in the bottom right corner, wearing dark clothing.

At this point, our tour guide said we had about an hour to go around by ourselves and see the Terra Cotta warriors. I partnered up with the girl I had lunch with and we went to the first building, the original excavation site, which has the most Terra Cotta warriors.

Another excavation site that didn't have as many Terra Cotta warriors.

We tried to get into the other excavation site, but it was still closed because we assumed the important person was still in there, so we weren't able to go in there. We also ran out of time and had to meet up with our group again. I loved seeing the Terra Cotta warriors, but I didn't like how crowded the museum was and that our tour guide only gave us a small amount of time to see everything.

After we met up, we went to another tourist trap where they sold expensive snacks. The store was set up like a snake line so once you entered, you had to walk all the way through the store to get out, which annoyed me. I was tired at this point and didn't want to do anymore unnecessary walking.

After our stop at the store, we went back to Mount Lishan and took the cable car to the top of the mountain.

On the cable car.

As we were walking down the mountain, we walked by these stairs that had the Chinese Zodiacs.
The Dragon (which is Joey's sign) and the Snake (which is mine) were next to each other, which I thought was pretty cool.

We came to these huge trees, which had red ribbons all over them. Many of the couples on the tour wanted their pictures taken in front of the trees, but I didn't know what the ribbons were for.

I was told that in order to have good luck, you have to walk on these gold steps without losing your balance, which I did successfully.

We got to this area, which is historically significant. In as recent as December of 1936, Chiang Kaishek fled to Huaqin Hot Springs (which we visited earlier that day) during the Xian Incident which took place on December 12, 1936. At the time Japan was increasing their invasion efforts into China , and Chiang Kaishek, leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party, was the head of China 's northern armies. Two of Chiang Kaishek's top generals proposed that they join with the Communist Party and resist the invasion. Chiang Kaishek rejected the proposal and fled to Huaqin Hot Springs to plot his suppression of the Communist Party. The two generals Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng, ordered soldiers to attack the Hot Springs and find Chiang Kaishek. During the battle Chiang Kaishek fled his domicile, climbed up Lishan, and hid in this stone crevice to avoid capture. Eventually, the soldiers found Chiang Kaishek and he was forced to agree to the proposal to join with the Communist Party. On December 25, Chiang Kaishek was freed, and the Xian Incident was settled. We could climb up with the crevice with the assistance of iron chains and view Chiang Kaishek's shelter, which some of the visitors did. I wanted to, but I didn't because I didn't feel comfortable doing so.

It says "Chiang Kai Shek Shelter" next to the crevice.

Once we walked to the bottom of the mountain, we were driven back to Xian and I was dropped off at my hostel. We drove by the Drum Tower, shown below.

Once I got to my hostel, I ordered dinner, consisting of baked rice, chicken, and peppers, went on the computer, showered and talked to my English roommate. He told me that he was orginally visiting his friend but ended up staying in Xian to teach for a few months. After our conversation, I went to sleep.